Bush Should Resign: Toxic Town
Chive Mynde
© 2001 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
As EU law forces councils to dump far less rubbish than before,
campaigners fear health impact of new 'nightmare neighbours'
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Correspondent
27 August 2001
They're calling it Toxic Town. It's only small, but in a country
facing a rash of giant new waste incinerators, it is very likely the
shape of things to come.
It is a camp, a tented protest camp in the Greenham Common tradition,
set up on the site of a big new municipal rubbish incinerator near
Swansea. With its campfire, its dog, its guitar and its painted
notices proclaiming "POISON FACTORY" and "NO DIOXIN DEATH", it is yet
another sign of how opposition to incineration is joining roads as a
prime target for Britain's eco-warriors.
Burning enormous amounts of household waste is going to become more
widespread, as European Union restrictions on sending rubbish to dumps
are phased in. And it is likely to become more controversial, as
communities, such as that at Crymlyn Burrows near Swansea, wake up to
the fact that big incinerators are planned for their backyards.
Opponents of incineration say that by-products of the burning,
especially the complex chemicals known as dioxins, are potentially
cancer-causing and will always be present in waste gases; defenders
say there is no proof that dioxins and other substances are
carcinogenic and that they are present only in minute amounts.
Residents (and especially parents) near incinerator sites
understandably embrace the precautionary principle. At present, only
15 large refuse incinerators operate in Britain. Yet a survey done
earlier this year by the pressure group Greenpeace, says that at least
70 more are in the pipeline, either under construction, awaiting
construction with planning permission, awaiting planning permission,
or with a promise of government funding.
The reason for this incineration explosion is an EU law that will
force councils to slash the amount of rubbish they send to dumps,
technically known as landfills. The Landfill Directive will squeeze
the 80 per cent of British household refuse currently being dumped in
holes in the ground to 35 per cent by the year 2020.
But the waste mountain is already immense (28 million tons produced
annually) and rapidly growing. Waste planners are aghast at the
prospect and the Government's waste strategy, published last year,
offers two principal ways forward: increase recycling, and increase
incineration. As Britain's recycling rate is one of the lowest in
Europe, recycling alone will certainly not solve the problem, and more
incinerators will be needed. But how many?
The Government let the cat out of the bag when it published the draft
of its waste strategy in 1999 and put a number on the incinerators
that might be required: up to 130 with a capacity of 200,000 tons
annually, it said, or up to 94 with a capacity of 250,000 tons.
Environmental groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth
latched on to these totals and, although ministers are now more vague
about numbers, the issue is in the open, and starting to cause
friction.
"Local people do not want these things," said Blake Lee-Harwood, an
incineration campaigner for Greenpeace, whose activists last year
occupied and closed down Britain's biggest incinerator at Edmonton,
north London, and were then cleared by a jury of criminal damage.
"Incinerators threaten people's health and their environment. They are
everybody's nightmare neighbour."
The situation at Crymlyn Burrows on the edge of Swansea docks is
archetypal: a small community in an area long-blighted by polluting
heavy industry suddenly finds itself destined to be under the
smokestack of a big incinerator emitting, residents fear, a whole new
generation of pollutants. They are outraged that their community
should have been chosen, anxious for the future, and angry at what
they feel is less than straight dealing by Neath-Port Talbot council,
which is the developer of the plant in conjunction with a Portuguese
firm. It is currently under construction.
The council stresses it is not just a "mass burn" incinerator, burning
everything shipped in through the gates, but a multi-purpose facility
that will recycle and make compost out of more than half the waste.
It remains the case, however, that when it is operating at full
capacity, the plant will incinerate almost 70,000 tons of waste a year
(with the burning used to generate electricity). Yet in the council's
brochure for the plant, the word "incinerator" is nowhere used: it is
referred to as a "materials recovery and energy centre".
Furthermore, in the artist's impression of the plant, the 40-metre
smokestack, the feature that signifies "incinerator" at once to even
the most casual viewer, is not visible. It has been left out, so that
the plant does not look like an incinerator.
Asked by The Independent why this was so, Frank Sawyers, the chief
executive of Neath-Port Talbot council, said: "It's an artist's
impression." Pressed on why there was no chimney, he said: "I don't
disagree with you that it's not there." Pressed on why it was missing,
he said: "I don't know."
Later, the council's director of technical services, Will Watson,
contacted The Independent on the basis that Mr Sawyers had given the
paper "a wrong steer" and insisted that the stack was visible on the
drawing, pointing to a short thick brown line, set at an angle and
almost merged into the background, which he said represented the
chimney.
Mr Watson said the health implications from the incinerator's waste
gases were "very very minimal, even microscopic", but the council
entirely understood the health concerns of local people, and was doing
all it could to reassure them, including setting up independent
monitoring of the plant's emissions and establishing a liaison
committee on which local residents were represented.
But that is not enough for the residents, who want nothing short of a
halt to construction and the scrapping of the incinerator. "The whole
community is against it," said Mike Ryan, the chairman of a local
action group which now has thousands of supporters. "We fear for our
health and the health of our children in particular."
The tents of the Toxic Town camp appeared a month ago, pitched by the
side of the busy Swansea to Neath dual carriageway, to lend support to
Mr Ryan and his fellow campaigners (who are delighted). A small patch
of alternative lifestyle, it was the idea of Vince Rees, 36, a local
poet and singer- songwriter who has been joined by sundry denizens of
Swan-sea's alternative scene. "I'm looking for clean air for the
children of the next generations," he said. "This incinerator will be
here for at least 20 years and what's going to happen to the kids in
that time?"
While he spoke passing drivers hooted their horns in support and gave
the thumbs-up sign. In publicity terms, the camp has been a big
success and has considerably raised the profile of the incinerator
campaign locally.
And as Britain grapples with the awkward choices of its future waste
disposal strategy, it is unlikely to be the last.
-
Science is not belief, but the will to find out.
Anonymous
pollution free by breaking down toxic chemicals
into harmless compounds using extremely high
temperatures.
Once again, the environmentalists are thinking
of the old ways of doing incineration and are
out of touch with modern waste disposal methods.
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