"No alternative" to incinerator
THE waste company behind plans to build an incinerator on the doorstep of a clay country village last night admitted that there is no plan B if the application is refused.
At the end of a four-hour public meeting in St Dennis on Wednesday evening, waste company Sita was forced to admit that no alternative solutions for dealing with Cornwall’s rubbish have been seriously considered.
The meeting was set up for Cornwall County Councillors to hear the views of local residents on the application. They are expected to make the final decision about the application later this year.
Nearly 1,000 people crammed into the marquee erected especially for the event on St Dennis recreation ground to listen to over 30 speakers who stated their views on the proposal, describing it as a "coffin giant" and "dioxin spewing monster".
People talked in opposition of the application, discussing possible health and environmental impacts, the use of "outdated" technology and the failure of the proposal to comply with current environmental and waste guidelines.
Cllr Dick Cole said: "A single incinerator is not the way to deal with Cornwall’s domestic waste, to comply with current policy it needs to be located ina built up area like Truro, Falmouth or Redruth."
Many people felt that one single incinerator was not the right option and at least three should be built across the county.
Restormel Councillor John Wood said: "We could have found tried and tested alternatives in the years we have wasted still talking about one great incinerator which we were fighting in Roche seven years ago."
Local resident and campaigner Patricia Blanchard said: "The evidence in the planning application to turn St Dennis into the dustbin of Cornwall is fundamentally flawed.
"They have stated a do-nothing scenario is the only alternative and have failed to look at other technologies."
All political parties came together to oppose the application, with Liberal Democrat prospective candidate Stephen Gilbert describing the plans as a "David and Goliath battle" and Conservative prospective candidate Caroline Righton stating that "incineration is not the modern answer to addressing our waste management. It is out-dated technology."
Charmaine Larke, from St Dennis Incinerator Group (STIG) which was set up to oppose the plans, said that figures used to calculate the efficiency of the incinerator were incorrect. She said that when calculations were done correctly they showed that incineration was the worst option for solving the county’s waste problems.
Local resident Robert Stack said: "Wildlife studies have been done on this site and one recently reported that there is no significant wildlife in the area.
"So everyone who has seen deer, butterflies and other wildlife has obviously been imagining it.
"We don’t even have a dual carriageway that runs the length of Cornwall so all the lorries are going to be backed up in summer traffic.
"We are going to be choking in vehicle emissions, let alone the toxins from the incinerator."
The only person to speak in support of the plans was David Buckle, Project Director for Sita UK.
Mr Buckle said: "We recognise emissions are a matter of concern but all facilities of this nature have to operate within strict guidelines.
"The possible impact on human health has been assessed by an independent body, who found that in the worst case scenario, with people exposed for a lifetime by the highest concentration of dioxins, it will not cause adverse health effects."
After repeated questions from speakers and the audience about what alternatives Sita had considered for the incinerator he retook the stand at the end of the meeting to admit that "there is no plan B."
8 Comments
by Valerie Barton, Northumberland
Monday, March 16 2009, 11:31PM
“Modern Incineration concentrates valuable resources that should be recycled, reused, composted or anaerobicly digested into hundreds of tonnes of toxic emissions to " air fill", consisting of ultra-fine particulates with the potential to cause health problems & climate change.Also hundreds of tonnes of bottom ash which could be standing in piles or skips at the site( you will probably be told that can be recycled though some would argue that point))and the very toxic fly ash from the abatement system will need transporting through your beautiful lanes to a hazardous landfill site or old tin mine. Incineration needs landfill and airfill causes pollution and wastes resources.”
by R.Toms, Summercourt
Monday, September 22 2008, 6:56PM
“Readers may be interested to know that barely a mile from the proposed incinerator site, planning application is being considered for an anaerobic digester. This will produce heat for 24 houses to be built nearby and the sewage from the houses will be disposed of in the digester. If a "dirty MRF" is built to sort recyclables from black sacks (relatively easy technology these days) then nearly everything else can be dealt with by anaerobic digestion. Gar-tec in Devon have built sevral plants in the Far East which digest plastic to make diesel and a company in Kent have developed a genertically modified bacterium to use in a digester to turn garden waste and straw stubble into ethanol (bio-petrol). SITA are not in the Dark Ages, they have their knuckles dragging along the floor.”
by paul reynolds, new zealand
Saturday, September 20 2008, 11:01AM
“It's a shame paul from truro didn't think before he made his comment, doesn't " not in my backyard" apply to him as well ?”
by Paula Ashby, St. Dennis
Friday, September 19 2008, 7:59PM
“Just to clarify, for the people like Paul from Truro, I am against Incinerators...full-stop. It's not a case of 'not in my back yard'.
The arguement is based on a lot of research into incineration and better alternatives. We are not silly people and fully understand that Cornwall's rubbish has to be dealt with as landfill is not going to be a long term solution. But research has shown us that there are better ways of dealing with the rubbish.
I could bore you with what I would prefer, but being a mere mortal and not an important COUNCILLOR or SITA Soldier, I dont have any say really in whats going to happen in my community.
But as Amanda has already explained, if this incinerator goes ahead I bet beautiful Cornwall ends up burning France's finest rubbish!!!!”
by Keith kondakor, Nuneaton
Friday, September 19 2008, 9:48AM
“A waste burner like this has to burn the same amount of waste every day as it is very inflexable. In winter vast amounts of waste will need to be trucked in to keep it burning.
These monstors are not modern high tec waste plant that sita make out. We cannot keep burning valuable plastic and paper. Waste need sorting and we need waste plants that put materail back into use.”
by Paul, Truro
Thursday, September 18 2008, 9:27PM
“Its a case of 'not in my backyard.! Do these people use mobiles,drink or smoke, have a wireless router. I reckon living in Truro I breath in more pollution than the incinerator would kick out.”
by rick, Trowbridge, Wiltshire
Thursday, September 18 2008, 8:56PM
“You are not alone Cornwall in disputes over toxic fumes from waste incinerators. There is much dispute over the level of toxic fumes being emitted from a a huge pipe-stack in WESTBURY, Wiltshire, about 5 miles from where I live. On certain days, according to wind speed and atmospheric pressure, a continuous flow of smoke can be seen being driven down to ground level from the huge chimney and local people are complaining of breathing problems and chest pains. Surely we can learn lessons from other European Countries who have found successfull ways of dealing with non-recyclable waste, or are we so over-populated and so swamped with rubbish that we just cannot cope?”
by Amanda Routledge, ST. DENNIS
Thursday, September 18 2008, 2:26PM
“68 % of municiple waste is bio-degradable and therefore treatable by Anaerobic Digestion.
For the cost of ONE incinerator, Cornwall could have SIX district AD plants and combined with our successful recycling regime, it would only leave 7% of waste left to be treated by other means MBT etc.)
And remember it is only Bio-degradable waste that is sent to landfill that will attract fines.
After last nights meeting, I spoke to Louis De Ponceville of SITA and he told me that they are "exploring" the use of AD in Cornwall.
This means that if County and SITA go ahead with this burning monstrosity, and then go on to use AD, the Incinerator will have NO choice but to wholly use Commercial and Industrial waste (which can be imported from ANYWHERE) as its feedstock.”