Desperately needed to draw attention to the really bad anti environment policies being rolled out by WAG despite the grand greenwash...
The WAG heritage minister is happy for
Cardiff libdems/Plaid Cymru to build a new bridge £1.4million and a ROAD into listed city centre for articulated lorries!!!
The WAG are promoting Project 'GREEN'!!! which is promoting incineration! Plus ignoring other better options.
ask the WAG why incinerator residues not counted in the recycling/composting indicator?
Couldn't make it up! What are they thinking of?
UKWin response to Wales waste Strategy is very concerned about the apparent promotion of incineration.. in project 'green' P Gwyrdd
WAG Approval of the business case and subsidy for Prosiect Gwyrdd, 27 Jan. 2009 for next generation energy-from-waste plant in south Wales
The Minister depicted
Prosiect Gwyrdd as "producing much needed energy" that would "use waste in the best possible way", despite the consortium claiming their Business case for procuring a ‘solution’ for residual waste is technology-neutral (www.prosiectgwyrdd.gov.uk)
Keeping incineration on the table seriously risks undermining targets for recycling and waste reduction.
Gordon James, director of Friends of the Earth Cymru, said:
While the Assembly Government’s target of achieving 70% recycling by 2025 is a step in the right direction, we have to be more ambitious. Parts of Europe, such as Flanders and Germany, are already achieving this rate, so we believe we should be
aiming for 70% recycling by 2015 and 80% by 2020.
We also want to see a much greater emphasis on waste reduction. Wales could become a zero waste nation, in which residual waste has been eliminated by 2030 rather than the proposed target of 2050. This is far too long to wait given the current environmental problems we face. Bold and urgent action is necessary now.
The Assembly Government’s own consultants have stated that it is fundamental that recycling becomes an option for waste management only after reduction and reuse. Without significant waste reduction, even 70% recycling by 2025 would fail to meet the Assembly Government’s own target to reduce Wales’ ‘ecological footprint’ to a fair 1.88 global hectares per person.
NOTE UK WIN's response to the Welsh Waste Strategy emphasises that
the incineration brigadiers are wrongly ignoring the value of biogas.
As does The Ecologist - 7 Aug 09 (full article requires sub.)
Councils accused of ignoring biogas - by David Strahan
Throughout the UK Councils are making a panicked rush into PFI incinerator contracts which will run 25 years, prove problematic, very expensive to sustain and more costly to terminate.
In fact, current British targets, subsidies, and procurement rules are driving councils and their private sector waste contractors towards a range of far less energy efficient options such as incineration, and some that recover no energy at all, such as industrial composting. The government, which is a recent convert to biogas, plans to introduce new incentives in 2011, but by then it may be too late. To avoid swingeing fines under the EU directive, councils are rushing to seal PFI deals with waste disposal contractors that could effectively lock in their choices for a quarter of a century. According to Johnny Johnston, sustainable gas manager for National Grid, 'There is a concern that valuable waste streams for generating biogas may be lost'.
Ex Biffa Waste Director, Peter Jones, now waste advisor to Boris Johnson, says -
As glacial as the development of British waste policy may be, the direction of travel is clear, and organic waste is going to become a valuable commodity that local authorities will be able to sell, not pay to be taken away.
Any council signing an incinerator contract today that ties it into rising fees for 25 years would be 'crazy'.
The problem is, that may be exactly what many are about to do.
David Strahan is a journalist specialising in energy issues,
and author of 'The Last Oil Shock'
