Monday, November 21, 2011

Incinerating the truth

Interesting letter in today’s WM from Cllr. Graham Simmonds......
On the subject of the incineration debate taking place in your newspaper, in 1959 Dr Friedrich Hoffman, a chemical warfare specialist and chief of the United States Army Chemical Corps’ Agents Research Branch at the Edgewood Arsenal, was sent to Europe to scout for potential chemical warfare agents.
In his trip report, Dr Hoffman noted that he had received “startling information” about the toxicity of dioxin, including the fact that it had been linked to severe and sometimes fatal liver damage.
Dr Hoffman reportedly told the army that dioxin was too deadly to be used for chemical warfare purposes.
Dioxin is perhaps best known as a contaminate of the herbicide Agent Orange, used in the Vietnam War to kill foliage. It is a recognised carcinogen, causing cancer in every species ever tested.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency believes it is responsible for 100 cancer deaths every day in the US. It causes Vitamin K deficiency in babies, disrupts the immune system, mimics hormone function, and interrupts the thyroid, which in turn causes developmental and neurological problems in children.
It has been calculated that up to 8,000 cancer cases will result in Belgium due to the dioxin food contamination that took place there in 1999. Now, in the UK we are building roads and houses with it and spreading it on our vegetable patches.
To date the Welsh Assembly has spent over £3m on Prosiect Gwyrdd, years have been spent by executive and scrutiny panels.
No inquiry has been carried out to determine the safety of public health from incineration fallout, only a “position statement”, underpins the millions of pounds and thousands of hours spent by officials.
With incineration, the only thing being disposed of is the truth.
GRAHAM SIMMONDS
Blackwood, Gwent

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Connah’s Quay launch of campaign against copying Project Gwyrdd.


Connah’s Quay launch of campaign against copying Project Gwyrdd.

A campaign is building up against the copy of Prosiect Gwyrdd that the Welsh Government is promoting in North Wales.  Three incinerator companies have been shortlisted to bid for a 25-year contract for municipal residual waste from Anglesey through to Flintshire, while Deeside on the eastern edge of the area has been suggested by officials.  The whole sorry saga of P Gwyrdd is set to be replicated – chasing a huge old-technology incinerator, with a PFI-type commitment to feed the beast with municipal waste for 25 years, along with deferring increased recycling and composting (only 65% by 2025).  The Welsh Government’s bribe is 25% of the gate-fee, but only for an incinerator, not for MBT alternatives (mechanical and bio-treatment), as adopted in greater Manchester and Lancashire.

A meeting has been called in Connah’s Quay by the Town Council for 22nd November, 6pm in the Civic Hall; contact person Cllr Aaron Shotton.  http://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/107948/residents-launch-campaign-over-incinerator-project.aspx

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Cornwall's mega-incinerator hits the buffers What happens when a Council refuses to draw up plan B?


Prosiect Gwyrdd Councils put all bets on a massive central incinerator, egged on by Welsh government grants and politicians. They shortlisted four options, all incinerators, two of which have withdrawn and a third is in doubt, leaving themselves with Viridor able to dictate terms as none of the Councils has a Plan B.  Cardiff has admitted that their fallback is to continue sending waste to Trecatti landfill, despite telling us this will incur £200 per tonne penalties.  Yet more intensive efforts on recycling, proven to work elsewhere, would avoid this at much lower cost.
P. Gwyrdd/Incinerator's second consequence is the scaring away of alternative bidders  (Sterecyle's autoclave; New Earth Solutions' MBT) and deterring local businesses from investing in the diversity of non-incineration technologies.  So we might learn from Cornwall where local businesses and anti-incineration campaigners already have quick and cheaper proposals in the wings.  Like Prosiect Gwyrdd Councils, the Cornwall County Council failed to plan the waste facilities that businesses wanted, but some are in embryo despite them.  Can Cardiff , Newport and the others learn from the story below?

  Cornwall incinerator campaigners' alternative plans
  21 October 2011 | By Katie Coyne
 
  Jubilant campaigners who won a legal battle in Cornwall against an incinerator scheme are pressing for alternative plans to dispose of the county’s waste.
 
  Last week, the high court overturned planning permission  for the £117m  Cornwall Energy Recovery Centre at St Dennis, to be operated by Sita, because crucial work scrutinising its impact on nearby Special Areas of Conservation was not done.
 
  The secretary of state was given three weeks to appeal the judgment. Such was the council’s confidence the case would go Sita’s way that preparatory work on the site of the 240,000 tonne  incinerator already  underway - that has had to be stopped.
 
  Cornwall Council called the ruling “extremely  disappointing” and added that delays in establishing a site were costing £1m a  month in road haulage and landfill taxes.
 
  Sita project director David Buckle said: “This judgment gives us cause for considerable concern and we will need to study the detail of this decision and consider any possible remedies.
 
  “We have always believed that the CERC is the best technical, financial and environmental solution for managing Cornwall’s waste and it is important that the scheme is able to progress, as without it  Cornwall is facing an enormous waste problem.”
 
  Campaigners from Cornwall Waste Forum (CWF), however, have been working on a Plan B for the county’s waste disposal. They  want what they call decentralised high materials recycling with gasification and AD, claiming the ruling presented “a brilliant opportunity for Cornwall to move into the 21st century.”
 
  They point to Surrey where county council - also working with Sita - dropped  plans two years ago to build two incinerators and  instead  invested in gasification and AD facilities. The move netted  the council a saving of £150m.
 
  CWF’s St Dennis branch campaigner Charmian Larke said: “Why wouldn’t  you do that? I think you have to be totally dotty to not do that – of course I am biased.”
 
  The forum also urges the council to use facilities being  developed by  the private sector. Larke said: “The private sector has  been getting  on and doing it while the councils have been wringing their  hands.”
 
  One example is at Hallenbeagle industrial estate in the middle of Cornwall where entrepreneurs want to build a 45,000 tonne advanced thermal plant which could be scaled up to process half the county’s household waste.
   Campaigners argue the current contract could be broken up and spread across smaller contractors. Alternatively, the council  could bring  waste management in-house, which it did before the contract  with Sita.
 
  Cornwall Council warned that terminating the contract with Sita could cost it more than £50m.
 
  A spokeswoman said: “The costs quoted were based on the  assumption that we would be required to terminate the contract, on a force majeure basis, and pay SITA between £30m and £50m.
 
  “Terminating the contract would also mean that the  council would have  to continue to rely on municipal landfill to deal with its  waste until  at least 2014. The cost of paying landfill tax would  be over £14m a  year by this time.
 
  -=-==-
  Single incinerator was not Cornwall’s ‘only’ option  21 October 2011 | By Katie Coyne
 
  Alternatives to Cornwall‘s single incinerator waste  scheme were put to  the council but have been ignored for 10 years, say  business leaders.
 
  Director of the Hallenbeagle estate Russell Dodge argued  that the  industrial estate in Scorrier, Redruth, was earmarked as a possible site for dealing with West Cornwall’s household waste. But because the council took no action, business leaders have been developing plans for commercial and industrial waste treatment at the site,  which has since been renamed the Cornwall Bio Park.
 
  However, in light of the High Court ruling taking away planning permission for the 240,000-tonne incinerator, Dodge has suggested that plans could be amended to take on household waste.
 
  He said there is space at Redruth to double the proposed  45,000-tonne  capacity advanced thermal plant so it could deal with all  of the waste in the west of the county – half of all Cornwall’s waste. Once  planning has been granted, it could be built and  operational by  February 2013.
  Dodge said: “That’s a plan B – it’s already  happening – if they were  willing to talk to us and participate with us.
 
  “We presented the Hallenbeagle as an alternative to the single  incinerator 10 years ago. It’s really annoying that the council has chosen a non-sustainable option and then has been pushing  it through  on the financial grounds that it’s costing the  taxpayer.”
  Dodge said a further two areas within the Cornwall Bio Park  have yet  to be assigned and could be used for waste sorting and  treatment.
    He added: “In the meantime, we have been getting on with doing our own thing, focusing on commercial and industrial waste because  this is  where the gravy is. The waste disposal authority has not  been planning  for commercial and industrial waste. It’s been planning  for household  – that’s another failing of Cornwall Council.”
    A second site in Fraddon, also close to the A30, already  has planning permission to build an anaerobic digestion facility with a  50,000-tonne capacity, producing 900KW of electricity. The  site is  being developed to take farm and commercial food waste, but  could take  in household waste if a food waste collection service was introduced across Cornwall.
 
  Dodge said it had been struggling to find backers, but now  has a  private investor in place and has put in a bid for further  funding  from the Low Carbon Grant Fund, which is European Regional  Development  Fund money being administered by the Convergence Programme  for  Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
 
  A council spokesperson said it could not comment until the secretary of state for communities and local government had decided whether to appeal the High Court’s decision to quash planning permission for the  incinerator. She said: “We need this clarity before we  can make any  further comment.”
 
  The Cornwall Bio Park is split in half by the Penzance to  London  Paddington rail link, so there is potential rail freight  access. The  site is also close to the A30, providing good access to  Camborne-Pool-Redruth and Truro and the rest of West  Cornwall.
 
  A planning application was put in this week by Cory  Environmental to  develop facilities to process C&I waste at the Bio  Park.
   Cornwall incinerator decision: a triumph for localism?    21 October 2011
    Matthew Thomson, chief executive, London Community Resource Network

  With 75% of municipal waste infrastructure planning  permissions  granted through the appeals system, the high court judgment over Sita’s proposed incinerator at St Dennis in Cornwall might look, on  the face of it, like another shot in the long-running war  between  Nimbys and waste planners.
 
  The case is no mere Nimby debate though, and the latest judgment is another twist in an extraordinary tale of convoluted  decision-making distorted by conflicting interests, contradictory ‘facts’, loca  authority unitarisation, and confused waste planning and  procurement.
 
  Perhaps the Government’s Localism Bill can help prevent such painful long drawn out muddles in future - there is certainly huge  scope for  improvement - but it will do so only if lessons are learned  now.
 
  The high court judgment makes apparent that the process by  which  relevant ‘competent authorities’ reached their various  decisions about  the proposed Cornwall Energy Recovery Centre was opaque not  just to  the communities affected, but also to the authorities  themselves.
 
  With significant implications for the localism and  planning  deregulation agendas, there seem to be two key areas where  clarity  must be provided - one about a community’s right to be  taken  seriously; the other about the relation between the  planning and  environmental protection regimes.
 
  At the heart of Cornwall Waste Forum’s case, upheld by the high court, was their ‘legitimate expectation’ that substantive  points raised in  the planning and permitting processes be properly  considered. The fight this small self-funded community network had to be heard at all demonstrates that we still have much to learn about  effective working  with communities - especially where communities of interest  overlap  with geographic communities. Just because people are local  doesn’t mean they lack technical knowledge or rigour!
 
  The lack of due consideration of the substantive points  raised by the  Cornwall Waste Forum illuminated a gap, and some confusion,  between  the Planning Inspectorate, the Environment Agency and Natural England. The boundaries of the planning, pollution control and habitat
  protection regimes were found in this case not to meet.
  Lord Chief Justice Collins made clear that while the Environment Agency was the authority with regard to the pollution control of an operation, the Planning Authority should attend to its impacts even where these  result from an operation controlled by the agency.
 
  So in the future planning regime, if the presumption is to be for sustainable development, whose definition should we be  following? It’s clear now that the answer is far from clear. A bad answer will see a  proliferation of judicial reviews as we work it out on a case by case basis.
 


Monday, October 24, 2011

Plans for huge waste incinerator in Merthyr Tydfil withdrawn with immediate effect

Covanta pulls out of Merthyr Tydfil £400m waste plan
BBC 24 Oct 2011

Max Wallis from SWWIN said "Great news!  Covanta have recognised the writing on the wall for high-cost mass-burn mega-incinerators that waste most or all of the heat.

It’s also a blow to the Welsh government’s pro-incineration policy, for they invited Covanta to Wales.  Ieuan Wyn Jones (as Deputy First Minister) visited Covanta in the USA and his officials set up contacts for Covanta and helped with plans for rail transhipment of waste from all over Wales (as FoI disclosures revealed).

For Prosiect Gwyrdd, who chose four incinerator projects for S-E Wales municipal waste, Covanta’s retreat means two down, two to go.  Let’s see Newport turn down Veolia’s plan for Newport/Llanwern – this would leave PG’s plan to shortlist two incinerators in ruins."

Plans for huge waste incinerator in Merthyr Tydfil withdrawn with immediate effect
read more

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Cardiff council coverup

Cardiff council have a briefing cover up for Cardiff Cllrs on Prosiect Gwyrdd which is as you know 5 South wales councils working with the welsh assembly to build incinerators. Cllr Stevens Con dem is chair of the board with 2 Plaid 2 ConDems and 6 Tories and he refuses to allow environmentalists from FOE or southwales WIN to give the cllrs the other side of the story.
The business case was made for this before the credit crunch - before carbon taxes were a reality - before recycling rates soared - before PFI projects were acknowledged to be bad value for money. 
Yet Cllr Stevens from Cardiff ignores all that to convince the Cardiff Counil to ignore all these risks and storm ahead recklessly to squander public money.
They refuse to admit its PFI hiding behind different acronyms


 Has this meeting been fixed between officers, who have an interest in defending their bad decisions?   
Is it not up to Cardiff Cllrs who they choose to hear at a Briefing in County Hall, and whether it should be held in private?

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Government can't defend bias to incineration

Opposition MPs argued for excluding energy-from-waste incinerators from strategic projects in national policy at the 18 July Energy debate.

Andrew Love, Labour MP for Edmonton/London, said: “Incineration is considered in the renewable policy statement, yet it produces significant quantities of CO2. Should it not be re-designated under the fossil fuel category?”
Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, added it was “hard to see why they [incinerators] are considered a renewable source”. She's concerned long-term council contracts to provide waste for energy from waste facilities would discourage waste reduction, reuse and recycling efforts.
Dai Havard, Labour MP for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, said the 50MW threshold for EfW applications to come within the NPS framework has “almost invited the industry to come forward with applications for huge developments.” The mega-incinerator proposed by Covanta in his constituency ignores the ‘proximity principle’ he said, whereby waste is treated as near as possible to where it is generated.
The energy minister Charles Hendry said EfW should only be an option after recycling and reuse had been “looked at”, and acknowledged the “strong case” for smaller, local waste facilities and technologies such as pyrolysis and gasification which he said the government was “very keen to encourage”.
Yet he asserted EfW “must also be seen as part of the waste hierarchy, to which we are absolutely committed, but we must also recognise that the generation option is better than going down the landfill route.” This sounds desperate – no rational person claims that burning rubble, contaminated soil and glass-rich fines (from Cardiff's MIRF) are better burned than landfilled, or that incinerator ashes are not often better landfilled.
Greg Barker, under-minister at DECC, was likewise desperate, in claiming that taking EfW out of the energy policy framework would create a “free for all” - called a 'level playing field' by those who wish to avoid bias to incineration. Saying this “framework” for decisions “does not necessarily mean there will be automatic presumption in favour of energy from waste”, he was admitting he wanted a strong steer toward EfW.
Charles Hendry did accept Dai Havard's proposal to meet a cross-party delegation to discuss the relationship between incineration, planning and energy generation, “delighted” to offer this little morsel to extricate the government from the hole he and Barker had dug.
Further reading – in Letsrecycle:

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Parties must tell us where they stand on Incineration



Parties must tell us where they stand; VIEWPOINTS


South Wales Echo April 1, 2011

ACCORDING to a Plaid Cymru spokeswoman ("Plaid urged to stand 
by waste pledge", March 26), the party remains committed to 
opposing waste incineration.
Maximum recycling, composting and other advanced processes

 are indeed the genuinely "green" alternatives.
Meanwhile, residents and local businesses in Cardiff face the

prospect of a huge incinerator being built in Trident Park, 
spewing out 350,000 tonnes of burning waste and pollutants 
all your round, ferried in by daily fleets of lorries - courtesy of 
the Plaid Cymru and LibDem-controlled Cardiff County Council.
And all this to the profit of big business, subsidised by local

taxpayers through the humorously named "Prosiect Gwyrdd" 
(Green Project).
Now that the National Assembly's petitions committee and 

the Local Government Ombudsman for Wales are considering 
widespread local objections, I have a question for all candidates
and parties in the forthcoming Assembly elections.
Before polling day, will you make your position clear on building
giant waste incineration schemes next to residential areas - are you 
for or against? ¦ Robert Griffiths Chair, Cardiff Against the Incinerator
Copyright 2011 Western Mail and Echo LtdAll Rights Reserved
South Wales Echo

Please reply to cardiffagainsttheincinerator@gmail.com 

 Have you signed yet? e-Petition:
No to Incineration

We call upon the National Assembly for Wales to urge the Welsh 
Government to revise its planning policy and policy on residual waste
 to provide a presumption against the building of incinerators, 
which send most of the carbon from waste into the air as CO2,
 emit ultra-fine particles that can be damaging to health, and create 
toxic ash. We believe that incineration is bad for the environment 
and bad for people

Monday, March 28, 2011

Call for Plaid to stand up against Incinerator ambitions driving Waste Policy in Wales

South Wales WIN lobbied the Plaid conference this weekend - read media coverage here Campaigners urge Plaid Cymru to uphold election pledge on incinerators


WASTE - A BURNING ISSUE
Time for Plaid to stand up against Incinerator ambitions driving Waste Policy in Wales
Plaid’s 2010 election manifesto is clear – 80% recycling/composting by 2020 plus opposition to waste incinerators. So let’s see Plaid condemning WAG’s rotten targets and its subsidies for incinerators –the £9 million/yr for Prosiect 'Gwyrdd' means £30-40million/yr throughout Wales.
Reality of Poor recycling targets and drive to mega-incinerators
WAG’s bias to incineration - subsidising gate fees and promoting regional consortia for 'residual' waste - is stronger than in England or Scotland.   Contrary to Jane Davidson’s ‘green’ claims, there are no ambitious recycling targets in Wales are not ambitious. Only 70% recycling, or 65% excluding incinerator ash, not the 80-90% judged feasible. 75% is already reached in Flanders etc. 70% by 2015 is practicable, but WAG defers it till 2025 !
The 5-county Prosiect 'Gwyrdd' is leading WAG's drive for privatisation of waste in Wales, with a projected value of £1.1 billion over 25 years. The 4 chosen companies to bid for 25-year PFI contract are Covanta/Brig y Cwm; Viridor/Cardiff; Waste Recycling Group Ltd/Barry; Veolia ES Aurora Ltd/Newport, all variants of incinerators pretending to be ‘energy’ plants. Two claim to be CHP, providing some heat as well as energy, but don't qualify as they will use little of the heat and hardly reach half the 60% energy efficiency set in Wales.
Their 'Design, Build, Finance and Operate' arrangement is a version of PFI, the disreputable Private Finance Initiative. Prosiect Gwyrdd’s Chair (Lib-Dem Cllr Stephens) claimed it’s only a PPP (private-public partnership) yet “financing for the Project will be predominantly, if not wholly, procured from private finance.”
WAG recruited Howel Jones from Partnerships UK – promoter of Blair-Brown’s PFIs – to cajole and bribe all Welsh councils into similar waste projects. Private companies taking over waste management in Wales was a ‘new’ Labour agenda.
Why oppose the incineration of household waste?
The principal purpose is ‘disposal’ and the 5 counties’ declared plan for 35% incineration means reduced efforts for recycling/composting
Far from helping to 'tackle climate change', burning more rubbish produces far more carbon emissions (eg. from oil-based plastics) than it saves through electricity generation. Cardiff proposes to ignore incinerator CO2 by calling it ‘industrial’, so maintaining ‘green’ pretensions
The ‘business case’ relied on exaggerating future quantities of waste. Waste PFIs need guaranteed amounts of waste per week and they assumed waste tonnages will grow over the years to offset increased recycling.
Poses health risks with toxic emissions and huge tonnages of hazardous ash sent to landfill – with special low rate of landfill tax.
WAG's policy claims to be technology-neutral, yet
# they require the 25-year contracts, Private Finance model, with an incinerator as “reference technology”.
# force authorities to choose mega-waste companies and squeeze out Welsh businesses
# it’s part of the privatisation agenda, that has proved highly costly.
 
The alternatives to incineration are cheaper, more flexible, quicker to implement and better for the environment. Rather than incinerating waste, the best option is to reduce residual waste to a minimum, through more intensive recycling and sorting. WAG’s own consultant’s report shows 80% recycling is more economic than the 70% they chose, as well as being more ‘sustainable’. Prof. Paul Connett, the leading exponent of the ‘zerowaste’ movement, on a recent visit, condemned WAG’s policy.

P Gwyrdd ignores risks
locked into a 25-year private finance contract, even more expensive since the credit crunch
incinerator ash will be classed as 'hazardous waste', with high costs of treatment or disposal
penalties will be attached to the huge amounts of CO2 emitted by incinerators.

We call on Plaid Cymru tob continue to oppose the use of waste incinerators, disguised as Energy-from-Waste (EfW) urgently demand a independent review of the value-for-money of private finance
demand disclosure of full information, over-riding excuses of commercial confidentiality
Call Plaid Cllrs in Cardiff and Caerphilly to account for supporting Prosiect 'Gwyrdd'
Expose the greenwash of incineration by WAG’s “Waste Awareness Wales”

Stick to 2010 Plaid’s Westminster Manifesto
“We will continue to oppose the use of waste incinerators and support binding targets for waste prevention. We support recycling targets of 80% of domestic waste by 2020 and the introduction of a higher landfill tax. We will campaign for changes in public procurement legislation so that Local Authorities can favour materials from recycled and local sources”.


2008: Conference further calls:
On the Assembly Government to work with all local authorities across Wales to promote a consistent and standardized approach to waste management which takes recognition of the fact that recovery of energy from waste is fullest through maximising recycling including that of plastics, and the separate collection and anaerobic digestion of food way genste; and that, by contrast, incineration is a bad solution, inefficient in energy generation, and damaging to the environment and climate change

South Wales WIN, http://southwaleswin.com/ affiliated to UK Without Incineration Network (WUKWIN)
email southwaleswin@gmail.com
Strangely the lib dems attack Plaid on supporting inconeration when they too support it and chair the joint committee. More here

Cllrs on P Gwyrdd Joint Committtee where tories CALL THE SHOTS!!
Strange bed fellows! 2 Plaid 2 lib Dems 6 Tories
http://www.caerphilly.gov.uk/prosiectgwyrdd/english/joint_committee.html

Lyn Ackerman Plaid Cymru Caerphilly
Colin Mann Plaid Cymru Caerphilly
Margaret Jones Lib Dems Cardiff
Mark Stephens Lib Dems Cardiff
Philip Murphy Tory Monmouthshire
S B Jones Tory Monmouthshire bryanjones@monmouthshire.gov.uk
William Routley Tory Newport
David Fouweather Tory Newport
Cllr Geoffrey A. Cox Tory Vale of Glamorgan
Gordon C. Kemp Tory Vale of Glamorgan

Campaigners urge Plaid Cymru to uphold election pledge on incinerators


CAMPAIGNERS today were due to urge Plaid Cymru to stick to its election promise to oppose massive waste incineration schemes in South Wales.

The South Wales WithoutŠIncinerationŠNetwork (WIN) is pressing AMs, councillors and activists not to abandon their 2010 pledge to oppose the Prosiect Gwyrdd programme, which has won support from the Welsh Assembly Government.

The £1.1bn project privately funded over 25 years could, says WIN, see multiple incinerators built in South Wales, while WAG’s target to recycle 70% of rubbish by 2023 falls short of a possible 80% to 90% recycled.

A spokesman, speaking as Plaid Cymru holds its conference at Cardiff’s Wales Millennium Centre, argued: “Plaid’s 2010 election manifesto is clear – 80% recycling and composting by 2020 and opposing the use of waste incinerators.

“It’s high time Plaid condemned WAG’s rotten targets with subsidies for incinerators.“Shoving more waste up a chimney and spewing toxic emissions into the air will undermine recycling, not increase it.”

WIN also insists incineration poses public health risks with toxic emissions and huge amounts of hazardous ash sent to landfill.

It wants Plaid to oppose all waste incinerators and demand an independent review of PFI projects such as Prosiect Gwyrdd with much fuller information about them.

Independent Caerphilly councillor Anne Blackman said: “We in Europe are being hoodwinked into paying millions in subsidy to process valuable waste that’s dealt with for free or paid for by the collectors in Canada and Africa.

“These plants could put deposits that are smaller than soot into the air that might affect more people than coal dust did in the mining industry.

“We need our public health and environmental professionals to examine incineration proposals and provide scientific and medical evidence about its effect on public health.

“We need to see the evidence and have a public debate – not just foist this onto our great-grandchildren for the next 25 years.”

A spokeswoman for Plaid Cymru said: “Plaid’s commitment is to overhauling planning policy so that decisions in relation to waste can be made close to the people and serve the needs of communities.

“Local people need to have a voice in that process.

“We are also committed to working with universities and industry to find new ways to deal with non-recyclable waste.

“Ultimately, of course, this is a decision for local authorities. Plaid’s sustainability spokesperson Leanne Wood recently reaffirmed Plaid’s opposition to incineration, and questioned the Environment Minister on the Welsh Government’s subsidy to Prosiect Gwyrdd in the Assembly chamber.”
WAG declined to comment given the forthcoming election.
Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2011/03/26/campaigners-urge-plaid-cymru-to-uphold-election-pledge-on-incinerators-91466-28405958/#ixzz1HshCYMjU



























Friday, March 25, 2011

Time Plaid to condemn subsidy for £1.1bn incinerator PFI

South Wales Without Incineration Network will be lobbying the Plaid conference on Sat 26th March  against WAGs funding for incineration and Plaid Councillors in power in Caerphilly and Cardiff promoting incineration and PFI totally against Plaid Policy. 
WASTE A BURNING ISSUE Time for PLAID TO STAND UP against Incinerator Ambitions Driving Waste Policy in Wales 
Reality of Poor recycling targets and drive to mega-incinerators

Plaid’s 2010 election manifesto is clear – 80% recycling/composting by 2020 & oppose the use of waste incinerators. High Time for Plaid to condemn WAG’s rotten targets with subsidies for incinerators - £9 million/yr for Prosiect 'Gwyrdd'
Contrary to Jane Davidson’s ‘green’ claims, there are no ambitious recycling targets in Wales. Only 70% recycling, or 65% excluding incinerator ash, not the 80-90% judged feasible, with 75% already met in Flanders etc. Not by 2015 as is quite practicable, but deferred till 2025(!)
WAG bias to incineration - both subsidy and promoting regional consortia for 'residual' waste - is stronger than either England or Scotland.  
The 5-county Prosiect 'Gwyrdd'/Incinerator  is leading WAG's drive for privatisation of waste in Wales, with a projected value of £1.1 billion over 25 years. The 4 chosen companies to bid for 25-year PFI contract are Covanta/Brig y Cwm; Viridor/Cardiff; Waste Recycling Group Ltd/Barry; Veolia ES Aurora Ltd/Newport, all variants of incinerators disguised as energy plants. Two claim to be CHP, provide heat and as well as energy but don't qualify as they will use little of the Heat and under half the 60% energy efficiency set in Wales.
 Their 'Design, Build, Finance and Operate' arrangement is a version of PFI,the disreputable Private Finance Initiative. Chair (Lib Dem Cllr Stephens) claimed it’s only a PPP (private-public partnership) yet “financing for the Project will be predominantly, if not wholly, procured from private finance.”
WAG recruited Howel Jones from Partnerships UK – promoter of Blair-Brown’s PFIs – to cajole and bribe all Welsh councils into similar waste projects.
Why oppose the incineration of household waste?
  • Shoving more waste up a chimney and spewing toxic emissions into the air will undermine recycling, not increase it
  • Far from helping to 'tackle climate change', burning more rubbish produces far more carbon emissions (eg. from oil-based plastics) than it saves through electricity generation. WAG pretend incinerator CO2 can be ignored by calling it ‘industrial’, so maintaining ‘green’ pretensions
  • Relies on exaggerating future quantities of waste instead of strongly increased recycling and composting. Waste PFIs need guaranteed amounts of waste per week & assume waste tonnages will grow over the length of the contract.
  • Poses health risks with toxic emissions and huge tonnages of hazardous ash sent to landfill
WAG's policy claims to be technology-neutral, yet

  • The Private Finance trap locks us into 25-year contracts
  • forces authorities to choose mega-waste companies and squeeze out Welsh businesses
The alternatives to incineration are cheaper, more flexible, quicker to implement and better for the environment. Rather than incinerating waste, The best option is to reduce residual waste to a minimum, through more intensive recycling and sorting.
P Gwyrdd/Incinerator ignores risks
  • locked into PFI they call 'Design, Build, Finance and Operate' capital funding which relies too heavily on banks and more expensive since credit crunch
  • incinerator ash will be classed as 'hazardous waste', with high costs of treatment or disposal penalties will be attached to the huge amounts of CO2 emitted by incinerators.
We call on Plaid Cymru to
  • continue to oppose the use of waste incinerators even when called EfW
  • urgently demand a independent review of the value for money case of private finance when interest margins which financiers now demand on PFI projects are higher and likely to stay at elevated levels.
  • Ask whether the disclosure of commercial information about the project is adequate and whether more information could be put in the public domain without endangering commercial confidentiality
  • Stop Plaid Cllrs in power in Cardiff and Caerphilly supporting Prosiect 'Gwyrdd'/Incinerator
  • Stop the Greenwash and stick to reality
Stick to 2010 Plaid’s Westminster Manifesto
“We will continue to oppose the use of waste incinerators and support binding targets for waste prevention. We support recycling targets of 80% of domestic waste by 2020 and the introduction of a higher landfill tax. We will campaign for changes in public procurement legislation so that Local Authorities can favour materials from recycled and local sources”.
2008: Conference further calls:
On the Assembly Government to work with all local authorities across Wales to promote a consistent and standardized approach to waste management which takes recognition of the fact that recovery of energy from waste is fullest through maximising recycling including that of plastics, and the separate collection and anaerobic digestion of food waste; and that, by contrast, incineration is a bad solution, inefficient in energy generation, and damaging to the environment and climate change.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Bullshitting over Private Finance for Prosiect Gwyrdd

Bullshitting over Private Finance for Prosiect Gwyrdd

Cllr Mark Stephens took on the PFI question at Cardiff Council meeting of 24th February. "P Gwyrdd is under a PPP partnership so cannot be PFI" – you're confused he told Anne Greagsby!

People had thought this guy spouts acronyms like DBFOM and PPP to show his superiority, but his answer showed he doesn't understand that a partnership can use private finance – it fully deserved the response “bullshit”, which caused ripples amidst the smug rows in the Council Chamber.

Why is this important? Because it shows the chair of Prosiect Gwyrdd is an ignoramus, who doesn't read the crucial financial documents. The Procurement Strategy [1] at s.8.4.1 says WAG funding is “critical” and WAG requires use of SoPc4 (Standardisation of PFI Contracts Version 4). It shows too ignorance of the reasons why the LibDem party and its guru Vince Cable reject PFI deals as excessively costly and a proven rip-off.

Cllr Stephens also chairs Cardiff Council's Finance Cttee, which may explain the crassly wasteful expenditure in the Council's waste section, who sent kitchen and garden biowastes for processing in Derby at the immense cost of £500 per tonne (normally near £50 per tonne).

[1] www.caerphilly.gov.uk/prosiectgwyrdd/pdfs/Procurement_Strategy.pdf ; Standardisation of PFI Contracts Version 4 www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/ppp_technical_update.pdf



Thursday, February 10, 2011

Clive Bates WAG Spin Doc

Clive Bates started as Director General for Sustainable Futures at the Welsh Assembly Government in March 2009, and paid £130k pa to front letters to the local press! ** Let’s recover energy from our waste letters to South Wales Echo Jan 20 2011 "IN THE interests of an open, honest conversation about how we deal with our rubbish..... "

Clive Bates CV coming through Greenpeace to become an apparachik, now declaring waste-to-energy is “best” ? *1990s worked for Greenpeace on energy and climate change, then became Director of ASH
* 2003 to Tony Blair's strategy unit
* 2005 head of environment policy at the Env AgencyRecently in 2010 became"Director General Sustainable Development" WAG. This grand title denotes the recent new layer of civil servants – Wales has appointed three @ £130k salary.
How does a guy with Greenpeace pedigree and understanding greenhouse gas complexities come to endorse the incineration industry line – that burning waste helps “to tackle climate change” in the local paper (S W Echo, 20 January**)? He repeats another canard: “energy from waste installations are regulated to stringent European standards, including those related to health” which of course comes from an Environment Agency blind to nanoparticles.

Monday, January 31, 2011

P Gwyrdd PFI Scam devised by Pro-Incinerator officers

PROSIECT GWYRDD SHORT-LIST
P Gwyrdd is a scam devised by pro-incinerator officers in S-E Wales to pretend to be seeking a “technology neutral” solution to municipal waste.
  •  they brought in Partnerships UK as financial consultants – whose remit is promoting PFI. Because PFI has a bad press and was caught in the credit crunch, it has been re-badged as PBFOM.
  •  they devised their reference project as a single incinerator, requiring a 25-30 year-long contract and high waste volumes, so the Councils are going slow on recycling (65% by 2025 though other authorities are already reaching or surpassing 70%)
  •  they pretend all the incinerator grate-ash can be re-used as aggregate, those elsewhere it's found to be toxic material and less than half is re-used.
  • WAG promised them 25% subsidy on the gate fee to the incinerator company. WAG again claims to be technology neutral, but disclosed in the media that energy-recovery from waste is “best” see below
  •  WAG claimed it wanted high energy efficiency, 60% or more, using all the waste heat. But their subsidy is promised irrespective of the heat-use, implying their claim is dishonest.
  •  The short-list of 4 companies announced by 'scam' Gwyrdd in December contained only large single incinerator projects, with little if any use of heat (the Veolia plan would supply a small fraction for injdustrial purposes to Solutia).
More details are in the briefing by R Walters member of Abergavenny & Crickhowell FOE (Friends of the Earth) [link]

When applied to incinerators, "energy from waste" is a dangerous euphemism. Far from being a sensible, environmentally friendly solution to the enormous amount of waste created in Wales, incineration is a nasty quick fix to deal with our ever-growing waste mountain.
The news that a 400m waste plant planned for Wales Jan 04 2011 to build one of the UK’s largest waste incineration plants on the outskirts of Merthyr Tydfil is shocking.
This is an Energy from waste CON.
WAG under pressure to reduce landfill are opting for incineration of waste under the pretext that they can make electricity from the process! We know the electricity from one of these large incinerators is pretty small, compared with normal power stations (several 100MW up to Aberthaw’s 1450MW) and produces toxic ash and air pollution. They set no requirement on energy efficiency, despite Welsh strategy on 60% minimum.
Claims that significant energy could generated from waste are wrong - even Covanta's huge Merthyr proposal would generate a tiny 60MW compared with Aberthaw's 1450 MW.
WAGs and Cardiff Councils are Re-branding incineration as a means of recovery rather than waste disposal to create the impression that burning our rubbish is environmentally-friendly, which it clearly is not.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Why Wales says NO to incineration and Veolia and Covanta

As the Prosiect 'Gwyrdd'/Incinerator team begin detailed diaglogue with the 4 big incinerator companies to turn A Resource into A Problem  I'd like to point out a few problems with the chosen companies.
Veolia is involved in aiding and abetting on-going war crimes. It is also facilitating, exacerbating, aiding and abetting Israel’s breach of the Hague Regulations. Under European Community regulations a company can be excluded from bidding for a public contract, or being awarded one, on the grounds of grave misconduct.
The British version of the European Directive is the Public Contract Regulations (2006) [section 23(4)(e)].
Veolia is Still doing Israel’s Dirty Work Veolia’s Tovlan landfill in the Jordan Valley

Veolia operates a landfill site in illegally occupied territory.  TMM, another subsidiary of Veolia Environnement, owns and operates the Tovlan landfill site in the occupied West Bank. Refuse from the illegal settlements is dumped in this site. At the same time, many Palestinian villages are denied refuse collection facilities by Israel leaving their inhabitants with no option but to dump their rubbish in the surrounding vicinity, leaving a profoundly negative impact on the environment.


Whilst the company’s involvement in the East Jerusalem tram line project has gained world wide infamy, their operations in the Jordan Valley have as yet not got them into as much trouble. However, their very direct support of the settlement infrastructure in one of the most vulnerable areas of Palestine prove that they are more than willing to profit from Israel’s brutal occupation as long as they can get away with it.
Who Profits from the Occupation?
A fortnight of action is coming up against Veolia

Swansea In June 2010 the council passed a motion to exclude Veolia from all future contracts: “This Council therefore calls on the Leader & Chief Executive not to sign or allow to be signed any new contracts or renewal of any existing contracts with Veolia or any other company in breach of international law, so long as to do so would not be in breach of any relevant legislation.” Veolia: Swansea City Council passes historic resolution to bar future contracts with Veolia July 15 2010.

Covanta
Huw Lewis, urged the Assembly Government not to attempt to attract jobs “at any costs”. we agree More jobs would be created by recycling more than by incineration..
Covanta - A FIRM which plans to build a giant waste incinerator in Wales has violated employment laws in America, a US government department has ruled. Wales on line reported that Merthyr Labour AM Huw Lewis said: “Frankly, I find it a little surprising that the Assembly Government has been courting a company that has a string of environmental breaches and seems to also engage in union-bashing. We desperately need quality jobs in Wales – and in Merthyr Tydfil in particular – but not jobs at any cost. I have tabled a Freedom of Information request to establish just how much dialogue has taken place between Government and Covanta before these incinerator proposals were tabled, I will be interested to see if anybody thought to ask about the importance of a unionised workforce.”

“It would be unfair to come to any final decision about these proposals until I am in possession of all the facts, but let’s say that this is already the third black mark against the Covanta waste incinerator. First, there was no prior warning to local people that this development was being actively pursued by elements of Government. Secondly, the poor environmental record of Covanta Energy has rightly got local people worried and finally the news about disregarding workers’ rights at American waste plants is also unacceptable.”
Wales TUC General Secretary Martin Mansfield said: “Welsh trade unionists are very concerned to hear from our colleagues in the Utility Workers Union of America about the anti-union approach taken by Covanta in the US.
Incinerator will 'finish Valleys', expert warns‎ WalesOnline - Chris Cousens - american energy giant Covanta has submitted an application for a 750000 tonne-a-year waste ...
Covanta sued again for dioxin pollution in the US
More info - http://southwaleswin.com/

Monday, January 24, 2011

Jane Davidson Incinerator legacy

Wales on line interviewed Jane Davidson   "One of her greatest pleasures, it appears, is that environmental groups rated her highly." WRONG ....Jane Davidson is so wrong - environmental groups don't rate her highly, she is misinterpreting the schmoozing and environmental activists are furious with her. Under pressure to reduce landfill her legacy is incineration -a nasty quick fix to deal with our ever-growing waste mountain and she is makng £millions available for Project 'Gwrydd' to build Incinerators that also produce CO2 under the pretext that they can make electricity from the process! We know the electricity from one of these large incinerators is pretty small, compared with normal power stations (several 100MW up to Aberthaw’s 1450MW) and produces toxic ash and air pollution. Jane Davidson isn't even enforcing a requirement on energy efficiency, despite the Welsh strategy on 60% minimum.Putting off 70% recycling till 2025 means going slow on recycling, when some countries (Falmand/Berlgium, also San Fransico) and municipalities have already reached this level. If you had the courage to step out of the office and talk to some activists Jane - for example Jane Davisdon refused to speak to the Cardiff Against the Incinerator Group.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Cardiff Waste Strategy Burn Pollute Make CO2

Politics of Waste
2 urgent matters- Cardiff council is debating Cardiff's Waste Strategy tomorrow while distributing Cardiff Council Capital Times - propaganda misinformation paper Capital times (Feb edition)
The waste strategy is to build super dirty smelly incinerators without regard to the cost and depending on WAG subsidy and not consider the other options.
Executive Business Meeting Committee  3 County Hall 13/01/2011 Start: 02:00 PM

Meanwhile Cardiff Council are currently sending out the Capital times (Feb edition)delivered to me yesterday with the message Turning a problem into a resource - that is Re-branding incineration as a means of recovery rather than waste disposal creates the impression that burning our rubbish is environmentally-friendly, which it clearly is not.
Other authorities had already achieved a lot higher recycling than Cardiff - South Oxfordshire had doubled recycling to 73%, and San Francisco which recycled 77% was aiming for 100% by 2020 and had rejected incineration on cost grounds  Basically Cardiff council and the Welsh Assembly government is saying that the Welsh are too feckless to recycle properly - the triumph of despair over hope.
The council seems to be more interested in publishing subjective and misleading information than in properly informing people about what’s happening. Local authorities should ensure that publicity relating to their own policies and proposals are not designed to be (or are not likely to be interpreted as) aimed at influencing the public’s opinions about the policies of the authority according to government guidelines.

From Cardiff Councils free newspaper Feb 2011 edition providing free misinformation to every home in Cardiff.Front page.."Tackling the problem of waste"
"Cardiff is preparing to move to a greener future....council looking to even more sustainable whilst remaining affordable, in its push to reduce the city carbon footprint and drive recycling rates higher...."Page 9 Turning a problem into a resource
"Four companies have been shortlisted to progress to the stage in the process to find
a solution for waste that cannot be recycled or composted. Prosiect Gwrydd will deliver a contract to provide treatment facilities for residual waste - what is left once recycling and composting have been maximised (lie) - five councils including Cardiff in South Wales, including Cardiff in South Wales . Cllr Mark Stephens chair of the project's joint committee said "all partners share the aspiration of the Towards Zero waste strategy published by WAG so we have ensured the bids going forward are consistent with those principles. (lie) The companies that have been invited to submit detailed solutions are
1. Coventa Energy proposes incinerator at Brig y Cwm, Merthyr Tydfil
2. Veolia ES Aurora 3.  Viridor Waste Management Trident Park, Cardiff.
4.. Waste Recycling Group Traston Rd, Newport.
The WAG has set a 70% target for recycling and composting and the five partner councils
- Cardiff, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, Newport and The Vale of Glamorgan have developed strategies aimed at a 65% combined target with at least a further 5% being recovered through the residual waste treatment process. Cllr Stephens added "The priority for each partner authority is to recycle and compost as much waste as possible. We acknowledge and are grateful for the financial assistance provided by the WAG which allows us to develop the infrastructure and capacity (build dirty incinerators) to meet these challenging targets."
Cardiff council should put out real information and not simply propaganda on behalf of the council.
Cardiff Waste Strategy
The turgid Cardiff Council Waste Strategy document is on this page
This offers only one solution. CO2 making Incineration dressed up as 'energy from waste'. All along we have described Project Gwrydd as project incineration while they claimed to be technology neutral and they come up with incinerator or incinerator or incinerator or incinerator
Some sources of energy are not renewable or sustainable. Energy from Waste is bound to be raised in this debate Incineration of waste are not a renewable energy form NOR IS IT GREEN
When applied to incinerators, "energy from waste" is a dangerous euphemism. Far from being a sensible, environmentally friendly solution to the enormous amount of waste created in Wales, incineration is a nasty quick fix to deal with our ever-growing waste mountain
The news that a 400m waste plant planned for Wales Jan 04 2011 to build one of the UK’s largest waste incineration plants on the outskirts of Merthyr Tydfil is shocking.
This is an Energy from waste CON WAG under pressure to reduce landfill are opting for incineration of waste under the pretext that they can make electricity from the process! We know the electricity from one of these large incinerators is pretty small, compared with normal power stations (several 100MW up to Aberthaw’s 1450MW) and produces toxic ash and air pollution. They set no requirement on energy efficiency, despite Welsh strategy on 60% minimum.
Claims that significant energy could generated from waste are wrong - even Covanta's huge Merthyr proposal would generate a tiny 60MW compared with Aberthaw's 1450 MW.
WAGs and Cardiff Councils are Re-branding incineration as a means of recovery rather than waste disposal to create the impression that burning our rubbish is environmentally-friendly, which it clearly is not. Cardiff council and WAW seem to be more interested in publishing subjective and misleading information than in properly informing people about what’s happening. The People of Wales deserve to be told the truth.
Incinerators produce CO2 
Incineration also involves the release of high levels of CO2, the main climate warming gas. Accounting for recovered energy, incineration is accompanied by twice or more the CO2 per unit of power than the same energy (as electricity or combined heat-and-power) produced from fossil fuel. From the start (2015) Viridor’s incinerator would be worse in fossil CO2 emissions than the worst coal-fired plant and nearly 4 times worse than the UK average generation. Full and proper consideration to climate change is a requirement within the context of the planning process though overlooked it seems. CO2 and incineration The Dirty Truth
The Welsh Assembly and WLGA must NOT promote incineration.
Energy from waste = a waste of energy. Plastics and paper are the main source of calorific value in an incinerator. Burning plastics, which are oil based, is effectively burning fossil fuels – the main factor behind global warming. Paper is produced from wood by an energy intensive process. Burning it wastes energy and resources as well as generating pollution. This information has been available for over a decade
Other countries have achieved much higher recycling rates 70% and higher within a few years so there is no excuse to build incinerators. Putting off 70% recycling till 2025 means going slow on recycling, when some countries (Falmand/Berlgium) and municipalities have already reached this level
More jobs will be created from better recycling as this new report shows.
We will never achieve 'Zero Waste' if Jane Davidson,and our AM'sand Cllrs allow companies to construct massive pollution making facilities like the incinerators above.
Why is the Welsh Assembly Government giving incineration and Prosiect Gwyrdd a subsidy of £9 million/yr which they propose to extend through out Wales.
Meanwhile the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA refuse to go for 'high recycling' pre-2020 and are trying to lock us into expensive incinerator)
Prosiect Gwyrdd Incinerator was not as they claimed to be "technology neutral" with their 4 chosen ones. Incinerator or incinerator or incinerator or incinerator. Prosiect 'Gwyrdd' = Project Incinerator
Jane Davidsons Phoney consumer group promoting incineration that is Waste Awareness Misinformation Wales costing us £1 million/yr. A deputation from FOE met with WAW last week and established that WAW is wholly funded and steered by WAG and sees its role as delivering WAG's plans - which are
a) to delay the 70% recycling till 2025 even though many countries and regions are already achieving or approaching this level,
b) to burn waste rather than produce biogas for domestic use, and
c) to subsidise incineration instead of allowing MBT at half the cost, with use of products in land reclamation and enhancing forestry/coppicing.
The deputation outlined FoE Cymru's critique of WAG's change in waste policy from minimising incineration and landfill to the present one of promoting and subsiding incineration over landfill. This critique and the real 'zero waste' policy were commissioned from PIC consultants. They pointed out that such an alternative that maximises recyclables and reclaims compostables through MBT (mechanical and bio-techniques) has been adopted in Ireland, where an international, team showed it to be sound. In comparison, WAG's policy is unsound, using poor computer software to get very questionable pro-incinerator results. WAG's officials (Andy Rees & co) must know that as they have failed to defend their results against FOE's thorough and convincing critique
WAW Waste Awareness Misinformation Wales said that they are an arm of WAG and that their 'survey' (Wales would like to burn not bury waste) was at the behest of Andy Rees, Jasper Roberts and co of WAG. They told them that not only was the survey loaded but the results falsified since, in fact people in the focus groups they had expressed strong worries about pollution of the air from burning!
Incinerators projects have a long term commitment of maybe 25 years. Landfill Tax is paid on bottom ash from incinerators. For every five tonnes of waste combusted, around one tonne of ash is produced. A government might well increase this tax in the future. In Ireland Minister for the Environment John Gormley's  plan to introduce a levy on waste going to incineration
The Irish government is proposing an incineration tax on the basis that incinerators are worse for the environment and resources than MBT - mechanical and biological treatments - which return bio-material to land or, if too contaminated, send to landfill. Yet the Welsh government subsidises incinerators and aims to ban MBT


ps
An updated Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity is currently going through Parliament. It states: “Local authorities should ensure that publicity relating to their own policies and proposals are not designed to be (or are not likely to be interpreted as) aimed at influencing the public’s opinions about the policies of the authority. The proposed new Code now contains specific guidance on the frequency, content and appearance of local authority newspapers or magazines. It also proposes to prohibit the use of lobbyists where the expenditure is intended to influence local people on political issues.
 Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity...
Summary. The Government is consulting on a new Code of Recommended Practice ...
www.communities.gov.uk/.../localgovernment/publicitycodeconsult2010

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Merthyr Waste Plant nasty quick fix

When applied to incinerators, "energy from waste" is a dangerous euphemism. Far from being a sensible, environmentally friendly solution to the enormous amount of waste created in Wales, incineration is a nasty
quick fix to deal with our ever-growing waste mountain
The news that a 400m waste plant planned for Wales Jan 04 2011 to build one of the UK’s largest waste incineration plants on the outskirts of Merthyr Tydfil is shocking.
This is an Energy from waste CON  WAG under pressure to reduce landfill are opting for incineration of waste under the pretext that they can make electricity from the process! We know the electricity from one of these large incinerators is pretty small, compared with normal power stations (several 100MW up to Aberthaw’s 1450MW) and produces toxic ash and air pollution. They set no requirement on energy efficiency, despite Welsh strategy on 60% minimum. The Welsh Assembly must NOT promote incineration.

Energy from waste = a waste of energy. Plastics and paper are the main source of calorific value in an incinerator. Burning plastics, which are oil based, is effectively burning fossil fuels – the main factor behind global warming. Paper is produced from wood by an energy intensive process. Burning it
wastes energy and resources as well as generating pollution. This information has been available for over a decade.

What a disaster for the people of Merthyr and in fact the whole of Wales as this monster Incinerator will demand rubbish from all corners of the UK to feed its voracious appetite. Other countries have achieved much higher recycling rates 70% and higher within a few years so there is no excuse to build incinerators. Putting off 70% recycling till 2025 means going slow on recycling, when some countries (Falmand/Berlgium) and municipalities have already reached this level

More jobs will be created from better recycling as a new report shows .  Coventa have a lousy record
- Covanta was found guilty of violating employment laws in the US and has been fined hundreds of thousands of pounds after exceeding emission levels of carcinogenic chemicals from its American incinerators.

We will never achieve 'Zero Waste' if Jane Davidson, our AM's allow companies to construct massive pollution making facilities like this. But still the Welsh Assembly spends millions promoting incineration using
quangos they set up for the purpose like Waste Awareness Wales.
Watch Energy from Waste Myth
and Come to the Caerphilly Council Chamber, Penalta House, Tredomen, Ystrad Mynach on Wednesday 19th January 201, 5.0pm till 8.0pm to hear a lecture by Dr. D. van Steenis on the health issues related to "Breathable Particle Emissions" from EfW Incinerators........don't miss it for your children's sake.