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COUNCIL TO DECIDE ON CONTROVERSIAL INCINERATOR

07 Apr 2001

Worcestershire County Council is due to decide whether to give permission for a controversial incinerator to be built in Kidderminster. The Planning and Regulatory Committee is meeting on Monday 9 April at 10 am.The council has already received over 1500 letters of objection to the proposal, and 15,000 have signed an anti-incinerator petition. A mass protest against the incinerator was held outside Kidderminster town hall last week. Similar proposals are being fought by campaigners across the UK [1].

Campaigners are fighting the proposal because the incinerator will:
*    burn waste that should be recycled;
*    threaten health;
*    lead to increases in traffic.

Earlier this month a Committee of MPs slammed the Government's waste strategy for leaving “the door open to a big expansion of large scale incineration of household waste.” Incineration, they said “will never play a major role in truly sustainable management”.

The West Midlands already has 5 incinerators, more than any other English region . FOE is calling for more recycling and composting - every household in the country should have a doorstep recycling scheme -instead of more landfill or incineration. Up to 80% of household waste could be recycled and composted.Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands all recycle over 50%. The Kidderminster incinerator would burn150,000 tonnes of Worcestershire's municipal waste each year - over 40 per cent of the total. Worcestershire only recycles 10% of it's household waste, and does not even have a local waste plan.

Clare Cassidy of SKI said:
    “The people of Kidderminster have made it perfectly clear that they do not want this incinerator.Worcestershire County Council must listen to our concerns, throw out this disastrous proposal and introduce a comprehensive recycling programme instead.”

Sarah Oppenheimer, Waste Campaigner at Friends of the Earth said:
“The Government waste strategy must be urgently reviewed. It encourages the development of massive new incinerators at the expense of waste minimisation and comprehensive recycling.No wonder so many communities are fighting incineration proposals across the UK.”

To avoid the need for new incinerators, FOE is calling on all new MPs to support doorstep recycling to every house - a policy now supported by both Conservatives and the Liberal Democrat party, but not yet by Labour.

[1] Communities across the UK, including Guildford, Hull, East Sussex, Maidstone, Byker (Newcastle),Portsmouth and Edmonton, are fighting incinerator plans.