On Saturday February 14th waste campaigners visited Mrs M Beckett MP to ask why the local council and United Kingdom Government is promoting a form of waste treatment which is at the bottom of the Waste Hierarchy.

Incineration, they argue, breaches UK Sustainability Objectives, as the harmful effects will impact negatively on future generations, adding to pollution and climate change.

Campaigners also presented Mrs Beckett her with an anti-incineration petition signed by over one thousand four hundred people – 650 of whom live in Sinfin.

A giant Valentines Day card will also be presented to Mrs Beckett, with a giant broken heart made from the recyclables which will be destroyed in the Sinfin incinerator, with the message ”Why break our recyclable heart and burn our future?”

This symbolises the Government’s lack of commitment to the UK Recycling Bill, UK Sustainability Objectives and climate change commitments.

Campaigners assert: There is NO SITE SUITABLE for an incinerator as they are not needed. Alternatives were presented to the City Council and Government over 7 years ago. Fortunately we still have time to set up more sustainable technologies for dealing with our waste.

In advance of this action, the Derby and South Derbyshire Friends of the Earth Co-ordinator has written to local papers with the following:

No-one has collected our papers, or food and garden waste and plastics since the snowfall. Is the city council trying to put people off recycling in order to be ready for their good friends the incinerator operators, to move in and destroy these instead, when people get fed up and throw everything in the black bin? If so, what will be the point of separating out our waste for sustainable recycling?

Already in Stockbrook ward residents have been told to throw their recyclable plastics in the black bin, as they have no blue or brown bin collections and recently their recycling banks were removed. If the incinerator were in operation, those items, including plastics,would be burned with the ensuing dioxin and nanoparticle pollution, not to mention the stink plus other pollutants, spread across the city. The nitrogen dioxide levels in the already designated Sinfin Air Quality Management Area, (AQMA) would also be breached.

People living in the vicinity of the AQMA – all along the inner ring road – are already breathing substandard air, in breach of UK Air Quality Standards.