PRESS RELEASE: 12TH OCTOBER 2010
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colchesterfoeCOLCHESTER & NE ESSEX FRIENDS OF THE EARTH
01206/383123
ECC WASTE 'CONSULTATION' ON WASTE DEVELOPMENT DOCUMENT 7 OCTOBER TO 2ND DECEMBER - WE MUST DUMP 28.5 YEAR WASTE DISPOSAL CONTRACTS NOW!
ECC managed to get PFI (Private Finance Initiative) Government finance in the final round of awards last autumn. They put waste disposal contracts out to tender in December 2009. Currently 28.5 year hugely costly waste disposal contracts are being agreed with the preferred bidders down to four including Cory, who have planning permission for a massive MBT plant at Stanway.
Publicly-accessible regular meetings of the West, East and Thames Gateway Area Waste Management Joint Committees were disbanded at the final meetings in March this year, having cancelled the January rounds of meetings. Some form of future, possibly twice yearly, meetings are planned once everything has been signed and sealed.
However, ECC's incinerator plans have been held up by strong opposition for fourteen years and they are many years behind most other authorities, some of whom are now dropping the widely discredited costly PFI loans, and some trying to dump contracts for incinerators signed long ago which will divert materials from recycling and composting required to reach statutory targets and will literally cost the earth.
There has never been a worse time for committing Essex taxpayers to these hugely costly and totally unnecessary polluting plants for thirty years, which will increase climate change gases and waste massive amounts of energy by destroying valuable materials for ever.
ECC's Policy & Scrutiny Committee on 23rd September (Appendix A) noted "the Council's failure to meet targets set...relating to CO2 emissions across Essex", and "In future the Council may incur financial penalties if it fails to reach carbon reduction targets."
In Appendix B 1.3 it notes "UK commitments to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 34% of the 1990 baseline by 2020 and 80% by 2050." And at 1.4 on sustainability includes "that natural resources are managed in the most sustainable way, having regard to issues such as renewable energy, waste, climate change and air quality."
ECC has committed to reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions by 20% over the next five years (App B 9.2.2/9.2.3). The following are seven important and relevant points about their waste plans. ECC now have to Get Serious as the national FoE campaign underlines about carbon reduction and WASTE!
1. County and districts have to save money: So dump the hugely costly 28.5 year contracts for waste disposal MBT plants shredding and drying our valuable resources to make dirty fuel pellets to burn in polluting incinerators which no-one wants. PFI has been discredited as hugely costly and some counties are dumping PFI. Some are trying to cancel incinerator contracts.
At the Waste Plan inquiry in 1999, the district councils' consultants Ecologika proved that a strategy for high recycling and composting, with no contracts longer than ten years, would comply with all Landfill Directive requirements and be far cheaper.
2. Why are ECC 'consulting' the public again? Because this is merely a formality to comply with Government planning regulations.
The Essex public have consistently opposed MBT and incineration and consistently been ignored. 22,500 objections were lodged to incineration in the Waste Plan, and in the 2002 War on Waste consultation 76% of formal responses opposed the six options for MBT making fuel pellets to burn in incinerators. 69% supported alternative Option 7 for high recycling, no MBT or incineration and no long term contracts. Colchester council's new coalition formally opposed the county's waste plans and adopted Option 7 instead in May 2008.
3. The ruling Conservatives have misled the public since 2001, pledging to oppose incineration but rubberstamping it in the Waste Plan in 2001 when they took control and consistently supporting it since then. The LibDem and Labour groups have consistently opposed incineration since 1998.
4. No need for costly disposal plants which will require feeding for thirty years with valuable resources. It will put a cap on higher recycling. Total municipal waste has reduced from around 700,000 tonnes p.a. in 2000 to 650,000 tonnes last year and recycling and composting in Essex has already reached 46% with other areas reaching 65% already after only a decade of attempting to recycle and compost our valuable resources. Wales and Scotland have adopted 75% recycling targets and the Welsh Assembly proved that 93.3% of municipal waste is recyclable or compostable. The non-recyclable or toxic waste should be eliminated.
5. The UK including Essex have to reduce CO2 and other climate change gases by 34% within ten years to fight dangerous climate change. We have to save energy and global resources. Global waste and resource use accounts for a third of climate change gases. We must dump longterm waste disposal plants and concentrate on recycling and composting for the next decade. MBT and incineration destroy recyclable and compostable materials for ever, wasting the embodied energy and requiring new resources to be mined and manufactured. Incineration creates toxic pollution and thousands of tonnes of CO2.
6. Make money, save resources and support UK reprocessors by separated kerbside collections: Govt-funded WRAP reports for over two years have shown that separated kerbside collections of recyclables and compostables, sorted at the kerb and baled locally, are cheaper to run and bring in high prices for clean recyclates, which can supply our UK reprocessors. If commingled (mixed) recyclables are collected in sacks or wheelie bins the materials are crushed and degraded, have to be sorted at costly central MRFs with around 15% dumped and recyclates usually exported.
7. The new coalition Government and Defra are prioritising separate kerbside bucket collection of foodwaste for making renewable energy in Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plants. These can produce electricity or, more efficiently, can be used as gas to heat homes. In February 2009 the National Grid produced a report which said AD could produce enough gas from food and agricultural wastes to heat half the UK homes.
Many councils, such as Islington and Preston for good examples, are collecting food waste separately. Chelmsford council is planning to do this shortly. However, food should not be put with garden waste in wheelie bins as it cannot then be used for AD, and the garden waste can no longer be composted in open-air heaps. It all has to go to costly InVessel Composting (IVC) warehouses as it contains food waste because of CJD ('Mad Cow' disease) concerns. Contents of wheelie bins are also hidden.
8. We are not 'running out of landfill' but we must stop wasting biodegradable wastes such as paper, card, garden and food waste in landfill which create methane when they rot down. Tarmac said that there is potential for fifty years' of landfill capacity at Stanway. Currently, waste is dropping and Essex landfill permissions have had to be extended. We must stop waste going to landfill by reducing, re-using, recycling and composting valuable materials NOT by building costly and polluting waste disposal plants.
Paula Whitney, Co-ordinator,
Colchester & NE Essex Friends of the Earth,
4 Shears Crescent, West Mersea, Essex, CO5 8AR.
01206/383123
ECC WASTE 'CONSULTATION' ON WASTE DEVELOPMENT DOCUMENT 7 OCTOBER TO 2ND DECEMBER - WE MUST DUMP 28.5 YEAR WASTE DISPOSAL CONTRACTS NOW!
ECC managed to get PFI (Private Finance Initiative) Government finance in the final round of awards last autumn. They put waste disposal contracts out to tender in December 2009. Currently 28.5 year hugely costly waste disposal contracts are being agreed with the preferred bidders down to four including Cory, who have planning permission for a massive MBT plant at Stanway.
Publicly-accessible regular meetings of the West, East and Thames Gateway Area Waste Management Joint Committees were disbanded at the final meetings in March this year, having cancelled the January rounds of meetings. Some form of future, possibly twice yearly, meetings are planned once everything has been signed and sealed.
However, ECC's incinerator plans have been held up by strong opposition for fourteen years and they are many years behind most other authorities, some of whom are now dropping the widely discredited costly PFI loans, and some trying to dump contracts for incinerators signed long ago which will divert materials from recycling and composting required to reach statutory targets and will literally cost the earth.
There has never been a worse time for committing Essex taxpayers to these hugely costly and totally unnecessary polluting plants for thirty years, which will increase climate change gases and waste massive amounts of energy by destroying valuable materials for ever.
ECC's Policy & Scrutiny Committee on 23rd September (Appendix A) noted "the Council's failure to meet targets set...relating to CO2 emissions across Essex", and "In future the Council may incur financial penalties if it fails to reach carbon reduction targets."
In Appendix B 1.3 it notes "UK commitments to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 34% of the 1990 baseline by 2020 and 80% by 2050." And at 1.4 on sustainability includes "that natural resources are managed in the most sustainable way, having regard to issues such as renewable energy, waste, climate change and air quality."
ECC has committed to reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions by 20% over the next five years (App B 9.2.2/9.2.3). The following are seven important and relevant points about their waste plans. ECC now have to Get Serious as the national FoE campaign underlines about carbon reduction and WASTE!
1. County and districts have to save money: So dump the hugely costly 28.5 year contracts for waste disposal MBT plants shredding and drying our valuable resources to make dirty fuel pellets to burn in polluting incinerators which no-one wants. PFI has been discredited as hugely costly and some counties are dumping PFI. Some are trying to cancel incinerator contracts.
At the Waste Plan inquiry in 1999, the district councils' consultants Ecologika proved that a strategy for high recycling and composting, with no contracts longer than ten years, would comply with all Landfill Directive requirements and be far cheaper.
2. Why are ECC 'consulting' the public again? Because this is merely a formality to comply with Government planning regulations.
The Essex public have consistently opposed MBT and incineration and consistently been ignored. 22,500 objections were lodged to incineration in the Waste Plan, and in the 2002 War on Waste consultation 76% of formal responses opposed the six options for MBT making fuel pellets to burn in incinerators. 69% supported alternative Option 7 for high recycling, no MBT or incineration and no long term contracts. Colchester council's new coalition formally opposed the county's waste plans and adopted Option 7 instead in May 2008.
3. The ruling Conservatives have misled the public since 2001, pledging to oppose incineration but rubberstamping it in the Waste Plan in 2001 when they took control and consistently supporting it since then. The LibDem and Labour groups have consistently opposed incineration since 1998.
4. No need for costly disposal plants which will require feeding for thirty years with valuable resources. It will put a cap on higher recycling. Total municipal waste has reduced from around 700,000 tonnes p.a. in 2000 to 650,000 tonnes last year and recycling and composting in Essex has already reached 46% with other areas reaching 65% already after only a decade of attempting to recycle and compost our valuable resources. Wales and Scotland have adopted 75% recycling targets and the Welsh Assembly proved that 93.3% of municipal waste is recyclable or compostable. The non-recyclable or toxic waste should be eliminated.
5. The UK including Essex have to reduce CO2 and other climate change gases by 34% within ten years to fight dangerous climate change. We have to save energy and global resources. Global waste and resource use accounts for a third of climate change gases. We must dump longterm waste disposal plants and concentrate on recycling and composting for the next decade. MBT and incineration destroy recyclable and compostable materials for ever, wasting the embodied energy and requiring new resources to be mined and manufactured. Incineration creates toxic pollution and thousands of tonnes of CO2.
6. Make money, save resources and support UK reprocessors by separated kerbside collections: Govt-funded WRAP reports for over two years have shown that separated kerbside collections of recyclables and compostables, sorted at the kerb and baled locally, are cheaper to run and bring in high prices for clean recyclates, which can supply our UK reprocessors. If commingled (mixed) recyclables are collected in sacks or wheelie bins the materials are crushed and degraded, have to be sorted at costly central MRFs with around 15% dumped and recyclates usually exported.
7. The new coalition Government and Defra are prioritising separate kerbside bucket collection of foodwaste for making renewable energy in Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plants. These can produce electricity or, more efficiently, can be used as gas to heat homes. In February 2009 the National Grid produced a report which said AD could produce enough gas from food and agricultural wastes to heat half the UK homes.
Many councils, such as Islington and Preston for good examples, are collecting food waste separately. Chelmsford council is planning to do this shortly. However, food should not be put with garden waste in wheelie bins as it cannot then be used for AD, and the garden waste can no longer be composted in open-air heaps. It all has to go to costly InVessel Composting (IVC) warehouses as it contains food waste because of CJD ('Mad Cow' disease) concerns. Contents of wheelie bins are also hidden.
8. We are not 'running out of landfill' but we must stop wasting biodegradable wastes such as paper, card, garden and food waste in landfill which create methane when they rot down. Tarmac said that there is potential for fifty years' of landfill capacity at Stanway. Currently, waste is dropping and Essex landfill permissions have had to be extended. We must stop waste going to landfill by reducing, re-using, recycling and composting valuable materials NOT by building costly and polluting waste disposal plants.
Paula Whitney, Co-ordinator,
Colchester & NE Essex Friends of the Earth,
4 Shears Crescent, West Mersea, Essex, CO5 8AR.
