Cardiff food waste going to Derby?

Heard a rumour saying that food waste collected in Cardiff is being trucked to Derby to be composted as facilities are not built in Cardif yet. Plus, not going to be available
until summer next year. In order to meet targets, needed to put in place now, so went to
cheapest tender.. Derby??!

Prosiect Gwyrdd Greenwash!

to Cardiff Environmental Scrutiny Cttee.

* Prosiect Gwyrdd was portrayed to the Councils as a long-term
solution to residual waste, with a claim of it being "green". But

it's really an inflexible and costly incinerator, going for burning
rather than maximal recycling and returning bio-material to land.

* Cardiff's failure to plan new landfill capacity (despite 5-25% of
waste tonnages emerge as incinerator ash that requires landfill)
means that Cardiff is facing high transport costs from 2009.

* while we hope the collection of food waste will help, we are
concerned at the predicted (para.6) £6 million per year penalties
from 2013 for failing to meet the target for cutting biodegradable
material sent to landfill.  MBT systems that could remedy this have
been ignored.

* Prosiect Gwyrdd goes for minimising waste to landfill, which
contradicts current Waste strategy of minimising incineration and
landfill.  It has been held up by WAG since May as incompatible with
Wales's probable amended waste strategy for high (at least 70%)
recycling and composting.

* modular MBT systems that give increasing separation of recyclables
and of residues to be treated and sent to land are being introduced
in England.  Non-food land is needed, as derelict land reclamation
and forestry, but neither Prosiect Gwyrdd nor the SE Regional
Plan/Hyder assessed this.

* financing Prosiect Gwyrdd is problematic, as PFI is ruled out and
private capital is caught by the credit crunch.  The incinerator
'solution' is a mirage, receding well beyond 2013 and requiring
landfill of ash that is increasingly classed as hazardous.

Councillrs need to get moving on 'plan B' - high recycling
and composting plus MBT trials towards meeting the 2013 targets.

Incinerator on Cardiff council agenda 14th Oct

There is an environmental scrutiny committee meeting on Tuesday 14th
Oct which is going to discuss Prosiect Gwyrdd- yes project green - you could'nt make it up!!

Cancer fear over plans for £50m waste plant

Cancer fear over plans for £50m waste plant
4,500 sign petition as GP warns of heart attacks, asthma and depression

• Paul Kelbie The Observer, Sunday October 5 2008
  

A plan to develop a waste-to-energy plant in Aberdeenshire has sparked a massive protest campaign over fears it could cause health problems.

More than 4,500 people living in and around Peterhead have signed a petition against the £50million plant which developers Buchan Combined Heat and Power Ltd claim will burn a third of the north-east of Scotland's rubbish and produce enough power for approximately 10,000 homes. Six hundred letters of objection have been submitted against the proposal.

Residents are concerned it will spew a deadly mixture of chemicals over the area, causing increased rates of cancer, heart attacks, clinical depression, autism, asthma and coronary heart disease. Their fears have been fuelled by a retired GP from South Wales, Dick Van Steenis, who claims research into similar plants in other parts of the country has demonstrated an alarming rise in serious illnesses in surrounding communities.

'The company's own environmental statement says it will emit arsenic and dioxins which are highly carcinogenic. One of the main things it emits apart from mercury, arsenic, cobalt, and lead is particulate matter,' said John Askey, a father of two who organised the petition. 'Particulate matter are very fine particles. In a smog you get very big particles, but it's the fine ones you can't see that cause an awful lot of illnesses like heart disease, eczema, asthma and cancer.

'Buchan already has the highest cancer, heart disease and stroke rate in the whole of Grampian, so we don't want this incinerator adding to our woes by blowing these fine particles over Peterhead.' Concerns about the plant have also been raised by NHS Grampian and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency which both questioned the suitability of the proposed location of the plant on an industrial site outside Peterhead.

In a submission to Aberdeenshire Council's planning department, NHS officials said they were concerned that the incinerator will be located right beside a children's nursery and less than a mile from the small community of Invernettie.

However, Buchan CHP insists that, if its plant goes ahead, there will be no significant risk to human health, and its director, Glenn Jones, has insisted that any emissions will be 'no more dangerous than those from a domestic car or a wood-burning stove'.

History Poisoning the Poor

Posted June 20, 1999.... entire article here

The poor are dying younger because they are being systematically poisoned By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 20th June 1999.

Why do the poor die younger than the rich? There are many explanations, and most of them involve the fecklessness of the poor. They eat the wrong food, smoke too much and exercise too little. Recently we learnt that they may not be solely to blame for their own misfortunes: cancer treatment, the Cancer Research Campaign revealed last month, is far shoddier for people on low incomes. But while all these factors are doubtless important, one of the most deadly killers has been largely overlooked. The poor die younger than the rich, new research suggests, because they are being systematically poisoned.

Dr Dick van Steenis is a retired GP who, in 1994, was asked to look at the possible health effects of pollution from power stations in South Wales.

Health Impacts of Incinerators here

Recycling rates Welsh councils

HOW MUCH WELSH COUNCILS RECYCLE

Blaenau Gwent - 17% Bridgend - 33% Caerphilly - 27%

Cardiff - 27% Carmarthenshire - 27% Ceredigion - 47%

Conwy - 41% Denbighshire - 29% Gwynedd - 32%

Isle of Anglesey - 35% Flintshire - 33%Merthyr Tydfil - 24%

Monmouthshire - 35% Neath Port Talbot - 27% Newport - 35%

Pembrokeshire - 30% Powys - 41% Rhondda Cynon Taff - 32%

Swansea - 30% Torfaen - 36% Vale of Glamorgan - 34%

Wrexham - 36%

Wales average - 32.2%

Source: Welsh Assembly Government. Recycling and composting rates 2007/08

Concern about proposed incinerator

We lead UK recyclers but Germans leave us far behind hereWHILE we may be recycling more Welsh waste than ever, we are still way behind the Germans when it comes to being green. New figures show that Wales is winning the race in the UK to attain European levels of recycling. But while we in Wales are ahead of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, we are still behind our European cousins.

Wales’ rate of recycling has jumped 4% since 2006-07, ahead of England (2.3%), Northern Ireland (1.3%) and Scotland (0.8%). Annual statistics for councils across Wales show the amount of household rubbish now recycled or composted has gone up from last year’s figure of 27.7% to 32.2%. Cardiff 27%.. is that because they include garden waste?

Seven local authorities are already recycling more than the 40% of household waste – two years ahead of European targets. But the UK has got off to a far slower start than neighbouring European countries.

The latest EU statistics show that in 2006, Holland had a recycling rate of 64.4%, followed by Austria (59.3%), Germany (57.2%) and Belgium (51.8%).

Sustainability Minister Jane Davidson has set Wales a 70% recycling target by 2025.Gordon James, director of Friends of the Earth Cymru, said he was “broadly pleased” with the progress made in Wales by the Assembly Government.

He said: “They are increasing recycling rates and they started off from a very poor position when they came to power, but we have still got a long way to go to catch up with some of the better countries.”

Mr James urged Ms Davidson to take a tough line on waste in the coming months. He said: “We are concerned about a number of proposals for incinerators in Wales. We are very upset about that.

“If you build an incinerator you have to have waste to fuel that and you’re acting against recycling. Where there are incinerators, usually the recycling rate is low.”

Oct 4 2008 by David Williamson, Western Mail