Sheffield could become the “dustbin of South Yorkshire” if proposals to allow the city’s incinerator to burn waste from Barnsley, Doncaster and Chesterfield are approved. Sheffield Council’s contractor Veolia, which runs the city’s incinerator in Bernard Road, Hyde Park, has applied for planning permission to import 75,000 tonnes of extra waste a year from the neighbouring towns to make up for a ‘shortfall’ in household waste and operational problems encountered when Veolia tried burning too much commercial waste [see Did McDonald’s give Sheffield’s incinerator indigestion?].
SAI (South Yorkshire Against Incineration, formerly Sheffield Against Incineration) presented Sheffield City Council with a special accolade: the ‘Dustbin of the UK’ award. The award comes in the form of a new statue for the city centre.
Photo of Sheffield’s Bronze Dustbin Award taken by Dr Vicki Shaw outside Sheffield Town Hall on Friday 25th July 2008 – photo is copyright of Dr Vicki Shaw
According to The Sheffield Star the Sheffield Green Party has voiced concerns about the environmental impact of more than 20 heavy lorries a day rumbling to the site – where waste is burned to produce energy to heat buildings around the city. “This proposal is in danger of making Sheffield the dustbin of South Yorkshire and we are one of the groups which have objected,” said Coun Bernard Little, one of the party’s three Central Ward members.
Colleague Coun Jillian Creasy added: “It’s true this waste would otherwise be landfilled, and that incineration with energy reclamation is better than landfill. But Veolia is not saving on landfill because it will simply transport the same amount of commercial waste, currently going to the incinerator, to a landfill site near Doncaster. We are also horrified that the Council is considering allowing Veolia to change how it operates even before it has consulted on or approved a new waste strategy”.
Criticism also came from nearby resident Jill Francis, who used to live in Hyde Park and is now one of the last tenants of Park Hill flats. “We make enough rubbish in Sheffield without importing it from other areas, and this will take jobs from people dealing with rubbish disposal in the other areas.”
Sheffield Council Labour group leader Councillor Jan Wilson said she wanted to ensure there would be no adverse impact on residents in her neighbouring Manor Castle ward, and suggested lorry journeys to the incinerator could be made at night to avoid clogging up busy roads. A decision on the planning application is due to be made by Sheffield Council’s planning board before the start of September.
Jeff Rice from SAI said:
“It is disgraceful that lovely Sheffield should be turned into the dustbin of the region. We are supposed to be a ‘green’ city. This proposal to bring in extra rubbish to burn in our city centre should be rejected. Chesterfield, Barnsley and Doncaster already have good recycling rates, far superior to Sheffield in fact. They need to build on this success with further recycling and other waste treatment methods that are greener than incineration like Anaerobic Digestion (AD). AD attracts more government subsidy in the form of ROCs (Renewable Obligation Certificates) than incinerators which makes them more financially attractive options to councils. They should aspire to more than dumping their leftovers on Sheffield.”
“On the plus side, the new Lib Dem council have made noises about bringing in kerbside collections to boost Sheffield’s recycling. SAI thinks that such a scheme would need to collect glass, food and drink cans and plastic bottles. In addition to this the Lib Dems are expanding the garden waste collection scheme, which is a good move. If Sheffield could catch up with the recycling rates of Barnsley, Doncaster and Chesterfield, that’d be great. If we all recycle more, this starts to starve the incinerator, showing how unsustainable incineration is.”
“If the Lib Dem council really want to be green, they should throw out this planning application to bring more waste into Sheffield. Our ‘Dustbin of the UK’ award will make a nice gold statue for the city and will remind the council just how ‘green’ it really is every time they look out of the window. The Lib Dems lost control of the council in 2002 over the incinerator. Now we’ve a new new Lib Dem council. This is their chance to show us what reformed characters they are and rejected this application.”
As part of the action SAI collected about 150 signed and addressed objection letters to the proposal. You can register your objection to the application to burn more waste in Sheffield via: http://planning.sheffield.gov.uk
