Incinerators 1: Corporate pressure is backed up by ‘neutral’ BBC statement

The Chief Executive of Sita UK, David Palmer-Jones, writing in the Financial Times, says there is ‘cause for alarm’, not at the potential loss of profits to SITA, but at the failure  to ‘tackle’ the energy supply gap, following the closure of old coal-fired and nuclear power stations.

 

David Palmer-Jones, second from left, celebrates the opening of the Suffolk incinerator

 

He points to the ‘energy resource at our doorstep’ – the 29m tonnes of waste sent to landfill each year that could be converted into power to supply around 6%t of UK electricity.

Asserting that the necessary political leadership is lacking, Mr Palmer-Jones urges government  to move ahead with sanctioning the required infrastructure – 90 incinerators – to build ‘local’ energy-from-waste power stations.

He points out that new nuclear will take15 years before they generate any electricity, whereas incinerators can be built and feeding into the grid within three years.

The BBC website reinforces this call: “Waste is big business”

It points out that by 2020 the UK must significantly reduce its landfill habit.

A recent government report has warned that we would run out of landfill space by 2018.

A European Directive means we must reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill from 48% to 35% or face big fines. Next year landfill tax will hit £80 per tonne.

It ends, “Unsurprisingly there has been a huge rise in planning applications for incinerators. 90 are proposed to add to the 30 currently in operation. Waste is big business”.

Next:

2. An independent report produced by a team of waste consultants says the need for an incinerator at Javelin Park, Glos, is not proven and the proposal potentially breaches EU law.

3. Concern over air quality supported by tone of HPA conclusions and a description of the flawed emissions monitoring process.