Hope you’re all enjoying a good Christmas, and looking forward to 2011. I could not resist taking this opportunity to thank you for everything we’ve achieved throughout 2010, and to share the celebration of our collective success.
Whatever the result of any individual application, collectively we are making our mark. Further evidence of this impact can be found in the recent surge in mainstream national newspaper coverage, helping raise the profile of our Network and the efforts of our growing community.
Monday’s Financial Times carried a piece (available in full at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/148756d6-11f3-11e0-92d0-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz19PA3RJ3b to those who register) entitled “Planning objections leave groups [i.e. waste companies] turning waste into energy down in the dumps”. It seems we are giving the poor rich waste companies a hard time.
The FT article explains how:
The stakes are high for the companies that are paid to pick up the garbage and also sell it into the National Grid. Dominic Nash, analyst at Liberum Capital, estimates that if the various plants Viridor has in the pipeline are built, they would contribute £170m to the group’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda). That is more than this year’s total forecast ebitda for all of the operations at Viridor, which is part of Pennon , and accounted for a third of Pennon’s profits in the last half-year period, helping the group avoid the recent earnings woes of peers United Utilities and Severn Trent.
David Palmer-Jones, chief executive of Sita UK (“which is awaiting approval for three energy-from-waste projects”) is quoted as saying:
They [Councils] all think it’s marvellous until you say to them, ‘Can I build one a mile from your house?’ and then they say, ‘We don’t like it [the idea] any more’.
And Tuesday’s Independent is brimming with articles on incineration. The cover story (yes, we made it to the cover of the Independent) features the alarmist headline: “Waste crisis means 80 giant furnaces set for go-ahead in 2011”. The opening paragraph describes us as “grassroots revolutionaries”:
A grassroots revolt is growing over a new generation of controversial incinerators planned across the UK, which would see the amount of household waste sent to be burnt more than double. Incinerators are currently being planned on more than 80 sites under the so-called “dash for ash”.
The article goes on to say:
The Coalition must decide this summer whether to give its blessing to the £10bn roll-out of the new incinerator chimneys, which continue to meet fierce levels of local resistance from those who would live in their shadow. Concern over possible health risks and impact on property prices looks likely to make incineration one of the most toxic political issues of 2011. Vehement opposition also comes from environmentalists, who claim that incinerators contribute to greenhouse gases and discourage councils from meeting more ambitious recycling goals.
Read the whole article at: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/waste-crisis-means-80-giant-furnaces-set-for-goahead-in-2011-2170387.html
And the two related articles at:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/michael-mccarthy-whats-the-official-line-on-incinerators-there-isnt-one-2170391.html
and http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/chancellor-opposes-waste-disposal-on-his-doorstep-2170392.html
Congratulations all ‘round. Now let’s start feeding interested journalists the follow-up copy and corrections! It would be good to see an article that deconstructs the claim, made by David Sher, policy adviser for the Environmental Services Association, (“which represents the waste industry” who “acknowledged the level of opposition” to incineration) that: “Energy from waste is a clean, proven and reliable technology and must form a component of sustainable waste management and energy strategies.”
So far, we have:
1. Crymlyn Burrows
2. Dargavel
3. Isle of Wight
4. Sheffield
There are other (historic) examples of emissions breeches (e.g. Nottingham’s Eastcroft incinerator), and also examples of incinerator plans being dropped because of the excessive cost (e.g. Coventry), and of incinerators running out of feedstock (e.g. Hampshire), as well as examples of incinerators described as Combined Heat and Power plants that have never harnessed the heat (e.g. South East London CHP).
Please sent further examples to UKWIN
