Only Welsh waste incinerator shut down

The only currently-operating waste incinerator in Wales, the Crymlyn Burrows incinerator near Swansea, has been shut down after failing 5 out of its past 10 dioxin limits. We understand, unfortunately, that this shutdown is only temporary. It also comes after seven years of complaints by residents about pollution and smell at the site, as well as a long history of operational problems. This is, it seems, the level of policing we can expect from Environment Agency Wales.
It's now six months since this year's campaign against the Cardiff incinerator was launched. I hope the turning of the new year finds everyone well and I know that our best fights lie ahead of us in 2011.
Back Story  Another fire at Crymlyn Burrows · UK Without Incineration Network 14 Feb 2010 ... Firefighters tackled a blaze at the Crymlyn Burrows waste treatment plant near Swansea. Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service was ...
ukwin.org.uk/2010/02/14/another-fire-at-crymlyn-burrows/ 

Prosiect Gwyrdd/Incinerator chooses incinerator

So much for Prosiect Gwyrdd  being "technology neutral" with its four chosen ones. Incinerator or incinerator or incinerator or incinerator.

Prosiect Gwyrdd Incinerator, the consortium of South Wales councils seeking a waste contract for South Wales, has short-listed only incinerators for a 25-year contract to handle municipal solid waste from the area.

A bulletin circulated to selected stakeholders lists the following four companies as candidates for the multi-million-pound contract:

"Covanta Energy Ltd: Covanta Energy Ltd is proposing a merchant Energy from Waste(EfW) facility INCINERATOR located at Brig y Cwm, Merthyr Tydfil.
Veolia ES Aurora Ltd: Veolia ES Aurora Ltd is proposing an Energy Recovery Facility(ERF) INCINERATOR located at Bowlease Common, South of the existing Corus Llanwern Steelworks,
Newport.
Viridor Waste Management Ltd: Viridor Waste Management Ltd is proposing a merchant
Energy from Waste (EfW) INCINERATOR with Combined Heat and Power facility located at Trident Park,
Cardiff.
Waste Recycling Group Ltd: Waste Recycling Group Ltd is proposing an Energy from
Waste (EfW) INCINERATOR facility located at the Solutia UK site in Traston Road, Newport."

Despite frequent claims of being "technology neutral", Prosiect Gwyrdd Incinerator, has declined to consider any bid other than incineration. More sustainable technologies such as anaerobic digestion, mechanical-biological treatment, or autoclaving are simply ignored despite the proven health risks of incineration and the atrocious carbon dioxide emissions associated with shipping incinerator output to Swindon, the only site available in Britain to take the approximately 90,000 tonnes a year of toxic ash produced by a proposed incinerator.

The locations of the incinerators are furthermore all in deprived areas, furthering the economic discrimination against the poor and working class endemic in Britain's waste management industry. No significant number of long-term jobs would be provided to these areas, while the health impact of emissions from the incinerator would continue to shorten life expectancy and damage public health.

Prosiect Gwyrdd Incinerator, has repeatedly promised to add Cardiff Against the Incinerator to the list of stakeholder organisations but still fails to do so; this bulletin was obtained through an unofficial but reliable channel.

Cardiff Against the Incinerator supports the zero-waste strategy articulated by campaigners such as Dr Paul Connett, who has spoken in Cardiff and Merthyr. While the Assembly calls for 70% recycling in Wales by 2025 and the Prosiect Gwyrdd partner councils "strive for" 65% by some unknown deadline, cities in Italy and Spain have achieved even higher recycling rates in the space of just a few years.

Even if incinerators made environmental sense, they still wouldn't make economic sense. Even if they made economic sense, they still wouldn't be necessary.

Note Gwyrdd meand GREEN - Prosiect Gwyrdd Incinerator

Prof Paul Connett says No to incineration in Wales

Professor Dr Paul Connett Ph.D, the notable advocate of closing the resources cycle with a zerowaste strategy, came to a Cardiff meeting sponsored by CATI last Friday.

He talked of Zero-Waste as a key step towards sustainability. The Welsh Assembly is using the landfill surcharge to drive the building of massive incinerators, but neither landfills nor incinerators are sustainable. A rational policy would give rebates for waste reduction and recycling while surcharging incineration and particularly its ash. Incinerator ash is toxic so the professor criticised the UK for charging only £3 per tonne for landfilling ash, instead of £40 per tonne on normal landfilling of waste.

Each tonne of ash (from incinerating about four tonnes of domestic waste) is about 90% grate ash and 10% flyash, the latter being highly toxic. In Germany & Switzerland they put fly ash put into nylon bags and store it in salt mines, in Japan some ash is vitrified, while Denmark sends their ash to Norway! Just the UK is very lax. Connett showed pictures from Bishops Cleve landfill (Glous), the major dump for flyash in the south and south-west, where flyash is found out to a km or two, well beyond local housing. Despite an EA (Environment Agency) inspection recording in 2005 “Control of dust inadequate in Hazardous Waste Cell”, it has been allowed to continue.

The modern incinerator is attempting to perfect a bad idea, said Connett. “Even if we made incineration safe we would never make it sensible. It simply does not make sense to spend so much money destroying resources we should be sharing with the future.”

He quoted BBC1's Panorama programme on 'Rubbish' where Dr. Kraemer (Head of EC Waste section) declared “An incinerator needs to be fed for about 20 to 30 years and in order to be economic needs an enormous input from quite a region, so for 20 to 30 years you stifle innovation, you stifle alternatives, just in order to feed that monster which you build”.

Connett described nano-particles as being the most dangerous of incinerator emissions; these ultra-fine particles take up metals and organic toxins formed in combustion and carry them through the lungs into the blood stream and then into organs within the body. He quoted expert evidence to an Incinerator Inquiry given by Prof. V. Howard, a noted medical toxicologist, yet an EA report dismissed his work as not peer-reviewed. Connett said angrily this EA writer should be fired, citing Howard's book on particle pollution and the many scientific publications he had peer-reviewed, in contrast with the EA's failure to write any report on nanoparticles.

Connett described how Zero-Waste can be approached with a series of simple steps that are practical, cost effective and politically acceptable. He praised the nine Reuse and recovery centres launched by Boris Johnson, London's mayor, at £6million, which shows partnership working between the public and private sectors.

In Nova Scotia (Canada) they diverted 50% of waste from landfill in 5 years (Halifax diverted 60%), created1000 jobs in collection and treatment of recyclables and compostables, and a further 2000 jobs created in the industries handling the recovered materials.

Connett sees 'zero-waste' as largely achieved by 2020. He reported not only Flanders' 75% recycling but also progress in Italy with 2000 communities signed up and 200 of them already reaching 70%. The Welsh Minister's claim to be leading in sustainability is rendered nonsensical by deferring 70% recycling to the long-term – not even by 2015 or 2020, but only by 2025 do they aim to reach 70%.

A questioner after the presentation said that WAG's “Waste Awareness Wales” people – who want Wales to burn waste for energy – had been invited along, but had not turned up. Not one elected political party representatives attended.