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Cameron's County chooses to incinerate 5 million tonnes of
waste
The Conservative controlled County Council for Oxfordshire, which
includes the constituency of David Cameron - Conservatives leader and
MP for Witney, has announced the preferred bidders for its municipal
waste treatment contract. Two companies, WRG and Viridor, have been
chosen to reduce about five million tonnes of waste to ash for disposal
at landfill over the course of a 25 year contract. They have
landfill sites at Sutton Courtney and Ardley respectively, and these
are expected to be the proposed sites for an incinerator. The County
Council has publicly stated that it expects an incinerator(s) to burn
about 200,000 tonnes of material a year including both municipal and
commercial waste, but mostly household waste. Environmental campaigners
condemned the decision as a waste of energy and resources; pointing to
alternative technologies and strategies which will increase recycling
and reduce waste while also producing less pollution (including
greenhouse gas pollution.)
Andrew Wood, Waste & Recycling Campaigner for Oxford Friends of the
Earth commented:
“The County Council's decision flies in the face of public opposition
and sound environmental policy. Other Councils have chosen waste
treatment technologies which don't involve incineration, and which
complement strategies for higher rates of recycling and waste
prevention - saving cash and the environment. The Conservative
controlled County Council have just put a match to David Cameron's
environmental credentials. Those professing concern about climate
change should act on their principles and reject polluting
incinerators.”
Recycling materials, for almost all classes of materials, is more
energy efficient than making them anew each time and burning them in an
incinerator, including one generating electricity. Studies show that
Mechanical Biological Treatment, where waste is mechanically sorted to
recover plastics and metals, and then subject to the biological process
of anaerobic digestion are top performers in terms of minimising
greenhouse gas emissions. MBT using this process can also generate
electricity from bio-gases emitted during digestion. This is then burnt
to produce electricity but unlike incineration does not burn the waste.
The compost-like output from MBT can be disposed of to landfill,
enabling Council's to meet their limited landfill allowances but there
are a number of other uses for the output.
Defra reports there are 70 MBT plants in Europe with six in this
country. Many Councils have chosen to build MBT facilities for their
residual waste treatment including Lancashire, Norfolk and
Cambridgeshire.
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