The UK is running out of landfill sites and we need
to find other ways of managing our waste. Gordon
Brown pledged on 19/11 that the UK will hit its EU targets of meeting 20%
of its
energy needs through renewable power generation.
Incineration or "Energy from Waste" is touted as a green renewable
energy supply: instead of burying waste, we can burn it, and generate electricity
at the same time – helping meet both these challenges. Suffolk County
Council are in favour of this, and will soon be looking for planning permission
for an incinerator for Ipswich.
But wait, am I getting a choking feeling? Ipswich already
has air quality that falls below EU standards in three
places, and nothing has been done to improve this in
the last year. Incinerators have cleaned up their act
a lot in the last 10 years, but still emit exhaust fumes
which contain dioxins (chemicals linked to cancer and
birth defects) and fine particulates. Fine particulate
matter is a concern for urban air quality because it
is linked to general indicators of ill health, such as
hospital admissions for respiratory ill health [DEFRA:
Review of Environmental and Health Effects of Waste Management].
DEFRA highlight that rigorous enforcement would be needed
to ensure that new emission standards are not exceeded.
With incinerators, occasionally normal operation is disrupted:
emissions may exceed limits or the gas control system
may fail. So, this wonder "green energy" would
exacerbate the problem of air pollution in Ipswich.
We need to ask some serious questions before our money
is invested in such a scheme.
