County incinerator… does it make sense?
The County have put an enormous amount of time and effort into plans for a 300,000 tonnes a year incinerator to dispose of the county’s non-recyclable waste from daily rubbish collections.
But I’m concerned as to whether the £150million will be money well spent. Yes, of course we must stop using landfill and incineration is probably a reasonable alternative. So what’s bothering me? Well, it’s the fact that the three years it has taken to get to this point has seen big changes in the waste disposal environment.
Recycling in Staffordshire’s local councils is on the increase so the question is, over the 30 year term of the incinerator business plan, is there going to be enough waste to burn? Add to that the increasing oil and energy price which is seeing a rapidly growing industry which will actually pay money for non-recyclable waste and it begs the question, in years to come why would disposal authorities like the County pay to incinerate their waste when they could actually be paid for it instead.
These questions are backed up by recent reports which suggest that regionally there may well be over capacity in the public sector with Staffordshire’s incinerator. The same reports also highlight the region’s ‘disconnect’ between the disposal of commercial waste and domestic waste. So, all in all, I’m not sure but in my view the evidence is mounting against the logic in spending so much tax payers’ money on a publicly funded incinerator.
If the growing commercial market sees the opportunity to buy and make money out of waste, I say let the private sector take the risk rather than using tax payers’ money. That said, my own Conservative Group are sitting on the fence on this issue despite my attempts to get them off it. To be fair to the County when this process started it was certainly the right way to go but things have changed enormously and I do worry that Staffordshire Labour see this as some sort of legacy project that there’s no going back on.
That could prove very costly for Staffordshire people!
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8 comments
£5 million per year for the capital cost of this unit is an awful lot to spend on waste disposal. It would begin to make sense only if the heat and end product could be used to generate significant income for the council. Waste is becoming a saleable commodity so let the private sector deal with it at a market cost.
I share many of Matthew’s views on this and have been trying to find the Conservative’s national policy on this which is nowhere to be seen.
That aside, have the County Council taken into account the ‘whole life’ costs both in financial terms and the environmental impact of the thousands of journeys made by lorries bringing their waste from all over Staffordshire and beyond? My calculations would suggest they haven’t.
In many ways this is the easy option but very short sighted because technology is moving ahead fast as is the industry which is growing to deal with both commercial and municiple waste.
Yes, incineration is an option which will be here for some time but I don’t support my tax money being spent on this new site. If there was a genuine joined up plan which included moving waste from the other parts of the Midlands by rail I might just take a second look.
But there is no mention of this only a deperate attempt to bolster Staffordshire’s reducing waste which is needed by this proposed plant by importing more traffic, more financial risk and more problems to the County’s beleaguered residents.
Matthew, you think this is some sort of legacy… I’m certain that is the case looking at the evidence!
Well done for speaking out against this. You are the first I’ve heard talking sense, or at least casting healthy doubt.
Your analagy of the ‘right then wrong now’ is probably spot on. I have a professional background in this area of work and am also a Staffordshire man.
I did write to your Conservative Party County HQ some time ago but didn’t even get the courtesy of a response. Keep trying to get your colleagues ‘off the fence’ PLEASE.
Perhaps when there is insuffiecient waste to feed the incinerator The fence will have to be burnt Then it willmbe too late
Hi Mathew
Here in Norfolk we defeated a WRG incinerator at Costessey in 2007.
Now our residual waste will be treated by an Advanced Mechanical Biological Treatment facility AMBT that uses anaerobic digestion after mechanical sorting that produces Energy from Waste (2xRoCs);(Dranco process) being developed by company SRM
Now we have found that over the last 5 years waste has decreased by 2% rather than growing, justifying only 0.6% total and residual waste growth; rather than current highly questioned 1.1%pa projections.
Inputting both the above points; Staffordshire wouldn’t need a massive EfW incinerator.
http://nail2.blogspot.com/
What is “non recylable waste”? May be, ingeneers and scientists have not thougt enough! Or is there a lobby giving a definition!
With kryo- recycling much more waste could be recycled:
http://www.buendnis-zukunft.de/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=174
What is “non recylable waste”?
Material that is not economically viable or like many compound products are difficult to closed loop recycle!!
Hope this helps.
So nice site. I will visit it more often and read comments. Thx u a lot
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