Time Plaid to condemn subsidy for £1.1bn incinerator PFI

South Wales Without Incineration Network will be lobbying the Plaid conference on Sat 26th March  against WAGs funding for incineration and Plaid Councillors in power in Caerphilly and Cardiff promoting incineration and PFI totally against Plaid Policy. 

WASTE A BURNING ISSUE Time for PLAID TO STAND UP against Incinerator Ambitions Driving Waste Policy in Wales 
Reality of Poor recycling targets and drive to mega-incinerators

Plaid’s 2010 election manifesto is clear – 80% recycling/composting by 2020 & oppose the use of waste incinerators. High Time for Plaid to condemn WAG’s rotten targets with subsidies for incinerators - £9 million/yr for Prosiect 'Gwyrdd'

Contrary to Jane Davidson’s ‘green’ claims, there are no ambitious recycling targets in Wales. Only 70% recycling, or 65% excluding incinerator ash, not the 80-90% judged feasible, with 75% already met in Flanders etc. Not by 2015 as is quite practicable, but deferred till 2025(!)

WAG bias to incineration - both subsidy and promoting regional consortia for 'residual' waste - is stronger than either England or Scotland.  

The 5-county Prosiect 'Gwyrdd'/Incinerator  is leading WAG's drive for privatisation of waste in Wales, with a projected value of £1.1 billion over 25 years. The 4 chosen companies to bid for 25-year PFI contract are Covanta/Brig y Cwm; Viridor/Cardiff; Waste Recycling Group Ltd/Barry; Veolia ES Aurora Ltd/Newport, all variants of incinerators disguised as energy plants. Two claim to be CHP, provide heat and as well as energy but don't qualify as they will use little of the Heat and under half the 60% energy efficiency set in Wales.

 Their 'Design, Build, Finance and Operate' arrangement is a version of PFI,the disreputable Private Finance Initiative. Chair (Lib Dem Cllr Stephens) claimed it’s only a PPP (private-public partnership) yet “financing for the Project will be predominantly, if not wholly, procured from private finance.”

WAG recruited Howel Jones from Partnerships UK – promoter of Blair-Brown’s PFIs – to cajole and bribe all Welsh councils into similar waste projects.

Why oppose the incineration of household waste?

• Shoving more waste up a chimney and spewing toxic emissions into the air will undermine recycling, not increase it
• Far from helping to 'tackle climate change', burning more rubbish produces far more carbon emissions (eg. from oil-based plastics) than it saves through electricity generation. WAG pretend incinerator CO2 can be ignored by calling it ‘industrial’, so maintaining ‘green’ pretensions
• Relies on exaggerating future quantities of waste instead of strongly increased recycling and composting. Waste PFIs need guaranteed amounts of waste per week & assume waste tonnages will grow over the length of the contract.
• Poses health risks with toxic emissions and huge tonnages of hazardous ash sent to landfill

WAG's policy claims to be technology-neutral, yet

• The Private Finance trap locks us into 25-year contracts
• forces authorities to choose mega-waste companies and squeeze out Welsh businesses

The alternatives to incineration are cheaper, more flexible, quicker to implement and better for the environment. Rather than incinerating waste, The best option is to reduce residual waste to a minimum, through more intensive recycling and sorting.

P Gwyrdd/Incinerator ignores risks

• locked into PFI they call 'Design, Build, Finance and Operate' capital funding which relies too heavily on banks and more expensive since credit crunch
• incinerator ash will be classed as 'hazardous waste', with high costs of treatment or disposal penalties will be attached to the huge amounts of CO2 emitted by incinerators.

We call on Plaid Cymru to

• continue to oppose the use of waste incinerators even when called EfW
• urgently demand a independent review of the value for money case of private finance when interest margins which financiers now demand on PFI projects are higher and likely to stay at elevated levels.
• Ask whether the disclosure of commercial information about the project is adequate and whether more information could be put in the public domain without endangering commercial confidentiality
• Stop Plaid Cllrs in power in Cardiff and Caerphilly supporting Prosiect 'Gwyrdd'/Incinerator
• Stop the Greenwash and stick to reality

Stick to 2010 Plaid’s Westminster Manifesto

“We will continue to oppose the use of waste incinerators and support binding targets for waste prevention. We support recycling targets of 80% of domestic waste by 2020 and the introduction of a higher landfill tax. We will campaign for changes in public procurement legislation so that Local Authorities can favour materials from recycled and local sources”.

2008: Conference further calls:

On the Assembly Government to work with all local authorities across Wales to promote a consistent and standardized approach to waste management which takes recognition of the fact that recovery of energy from waste is fullest through maximising recycling including that of plastics, and the separate collection and anaerobic digestion of food waste; and that, by contrast, incineration is a bad solution, inefficient in energy generation, and damaging to the environment and climate change.