City chiefs warm to incinerator
THE prospect of a waste incinerator being built in the Lothians has moved a step nearer after city council chiefs backed the move.
The new Lib Dem-SNP coalition is supporting the idea of a new “energy from waste” processing plant in a bid to cut the amount of waste going to landfill.
That is likely to mean an incinerator burning rubbish to produce electricity being built in the Lothians. But the local authority must find ways to increase recycling, as councils face being fined if they can’t reach a target of recycling 55 per cent of waste by 2020.
However, a council spokes-woman today insisted the authority was on track to reach its own recycling target of 75 per cent of waste by 2020.
A location for any incinerator has yet to be decided, but sites in East Lothian and Midlothian are said to be among the favourites.
The idea of supporting the new processing plant was agreed by the council’s environment committee in private on Tuesday.
Councillor Steve Burgess, Green Party environment spokesman, said: “There can be no doubt, a new waste treatment facility to handle Edinburgh’s household waste is very likely to be a mass burn incinerator.”
Waste operator Viridor unveiled proposals for a 140 million incinerator near Dunbar last month. It would be capable of dealing with 450,000 tonnes of waste a year - more than twice the amount produced by Edinburgh.
Viridor has also lodged plans for waste plant facilities in Portobello, but this would be where waste is initially collected, not treated.
In March the Scottish Government announced 48m funding to increase recycling and find new ways to get rid of “residual waste” which cannot be reduced, recycled or composted.
Jeni Mackay, of the Communities Against Toxics Scotland, which is helping to campaign against Viridor’s plans for an incinerator in Dunbar, said: “The facts about the environmental side-effects of incinerators have not been made clear.
“You are actually generating waste from incineration because of the tonnes of ash produced.
“And the pollutants from the incineration process have to be released somewhere.
“Running incineration alongside recycling and re-use is a myth. There is no incentive here to reduce the waste output.”
But council environment leader Robert Aldridge said: “The new administration is fully committed to increasing recycling rates in the city and our target for Edinburgh is 75 per cent recycled by 2020.
“Strenuous efforts across Lothian and Borders have boosted recycling rates from 4.8 per cent in 2000 to an average of 27.6 per cent in 2006, with a rate of 30 per cent predicted for 2008 and plans to exceed the National Waste Plan’s 55 per cent target by 2020.”
She said the council would be looking for companies to bring forward ideas of alternatives to incineration.
Related topics
-
/topics.cfm?tid=1586
-
/topics.cfm?tid=1585
