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Gloucestershire resident warns Oxfordshire County Council
about toxic
incinerator ash
On Tuesday 19 June at Oxfordshire County Council's meeting in
County
Hall, Oxford, a Gloucestershire resident living near a hazardous waste
dump which takes toxic ash from incinerators addressed the 74
Councillors. If Oxfordshire County Council decides to burn
residents' rubbish in an incinerator then toxic incinerator ash could
be
transported to the hazardous waste dump at Bishop Cleeve,
Gloucestershire. Environmental campaigners believe the Council should
opt for high
recycling rates and Mechanical Biological Treatment of Oxfordshire's
waste, which produces no hazardous waste.
John Beattie is a resident of Bishop’s Cleeve - a village of
10,000
people north of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire. By profession he is a
physicist working as an engineer. He lives about 400 meters of the
hazardous waste landfill at Bishop’s Cleeve. John Beattie works with a
local residents group called Safety in Waste and Rubbish Disposal (see
www.SWARDBishopsCleeve.co.uk).
Below is an exert from his speech to the Council:
"Incineration does reduce waste, however, it leaves up to 40% of the
volume of burnt waste in the form of inert bottom ash from the burning
process, and a very fine fly ash collected from the incinerator chimney
which is contaminated with toxins produced during incineration. This
ash
can only be disposed of in a landfill approved for toxic waste.
"The handling of the fine toxic fly ash (described as being like talcum
powder and normally measured in microns or thousandths of a millimeter)
at the landfill also provides additional opportunity for emission of
the
toxins into the atmosphere with the consequent threat to the health of
the local population particularly children, mothers-to-be, nursing
mothers and the elderly. The main health concerns include respiratory
problems and an increased risk of cancer along with a number of other
diseases.
"The landfill at Bishop’s Cleeve already takes 60,000 tonnes per year
(May 2004) of toxic incinerator ash from outside Gloucestershire; from
Birmingham, Coventry, Hampshire and London, and is currently only
licensed until 2009. Whilst an extension is being applied for, this is
not necessarily a foregone conclusion".
Andrew Wood, Waste and Recycling campaigner for Oxford Friends
of the
Earth said:
“When rubbish is burned in an incinerator then ash is produced,
including toxic ash. If the Council chooses incineration over high
recycling rates and a waste treatment like Mechanical Biological
Treatment, which needn't involve burning waste, then it'll need to find
a hazardous waste dump for the ash. Where in Oxfordshire this new waste
dump would be located isn't yet clear.“
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