Our throw-away culture is risking people's health and squandering the world's natural resources.

Prioritising recycling and investing in waste reduction would go a long way to solving the waste crisis. Instead the Government is opting for wide-scale incineration. Read below to find out what is happening locally and how you can help.

"Essex Works" Survey

Outside Colchester Town Hall, 26 Feb. 08: opposing Conservative waste plans and the latest consultation.

Earlier this year, most Essex residents were sent a magazine called "Essex Works" which included a questionnaire "The Future for Waste", also available as a separate booklet or on ECC's website. This survey, which closed on May 5th, was designed to lead people into giving certain answers, so as to support the County Council's preferred strategy of large centralised "MBT" plants, like the Stanway one referred to below.

When filling in the questionnaire, we suggested that people tick the box "Strongly disagree" to MBT in question 3, and the box "No (send to landfill)" in question 4. In the space for comments under question 5, we asked people to object to the misleading leaflet and the limited choices available.

If you had time (and room) you could object in more detail; for instance, you could ask for much higher recycling and composting, aiming at Zero Waste by 2020. You could support council-run kerbside collections, with materials separated at the kerb and baled locally, rather than ECC's proposal for a privatised area collecting service which would take compacted mixed recyclables (this contaminates the materials, especially paper, and makes them less valuable).

Stanway MBT Proposal

An application has been lodged at Stanway, Colchester, for one of three proposed massive MBT (Mechanical Biological Treatment) plants in Essex. The period for objections for the Stanway application has passed; below is a link explaining the grounds on which we objected to it. It covers some of the saga of our ten-year battle against the county council's waste disposal plans.

The MBT Dragon!

We recently held a demo on Colchester Town Hall steps with the MBT dragon fought off by a five-year-old St George (see the Gallery and Archive pages for relevant files). The Essex County Council and Colchester Cabinet member Baddie was giving the large brown envelope for £billions to the Waste Disposal Baddie for the 25 year contract to destroy our valuable recyclable and compostable resources.

We also opposed the Rivenhall Airfield application, which came up at Essex County Council's planning committee on 30th March, 2007. It proposed over 500,000 tonnes p.a. for the MBT plant, and would produce over 100,000 tonnes p.a. of polluting RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel) from mashed dried rubbish, which they say would be burnt 'offsite'.

An application was also lodged for Basildon, with the deadline for objections on 12th April, 2007. The MBT dragon and the council Baddie visited Basildon on the day and a petition with 3,500 signatures was presented to Basildon council.

Take Action on Stanway MBT Proposal

The best form of action you can take on Waste at the moment is to be informed. Please have a look at the Archive page for more information.

Here, for example, is our most recent press release on this subject:
PFI bid to be agreed for two massive MBT plants at Basildon and Rivenhall -- 13/07/08 (.DOC)

Page updated 15/7/08