Waste
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.
Press Coverage
Outside County Hall, October 2011: demonstrating for recycling and against the waste contract.
Our most recent letter to the press on waste was printed in the Colchester Gazette on 20th March 2012, as lead letter under the heading 'We must cancel the waste plant contract or regret it', and in the Essex County Standard on 6th April.
Meanwhile, back in October 2011 the Gazette used this picture of our demo outside County Hall for a whole page article on recycling. From the left - Paul Gadd, Co-ordinator Saffron Walden FoE; Maike Windhorst, SE Essex FoE; Peter Foreman, Chelmsford member, Paula Whitney, Co-ordinator, and Hildegard Hill, Recycling campaigner, for Colchester & NE Essex FoE.
January 2012 Waste Consultation
We are asking people to respond to the consultation on the Waste Development Document before 5.30pm on Thursday 19th January.
The Waste Development Document (WDD) is a very long and flawed 'planning' document being 'consulted' on, with a deadline of 5.30pm on Thursday 19th January. It will not be completed until years after the waste plants have all been agreed. See it on: http://consult.essexcc.gov.uk.
Please email a response to: mineralsandwastepolicy@essex.gov.uk. You don't have to answer all the questions. Remember to include your name and address. We suggest: 'No' you don't agree with Questions 1, 7, 8, 9, 13 and 14 and 'Yes' you agree with Question 21, for the following reasons:
ECC are imminently going to rubberstamp a 28 year £800million contract at Basildon for an MBT plant for 417,000 tonnes p.a. of "black bag" residual waste trucked from the whole of Essex. This would cost Essex council tax payers £4billion and must be stopped.
This contracted tonnage is far more than the 377,000 tonnes of residual waste Essex and Southend landfilled last year, with Essex only recycling 50% - up from 43% two years ago. It would tie Essex into providing the contracted tonnage each year and would put a cap on higher recycling.
Recycling centres are recycling 65% now and one district is recycling 65%. Foodwaste collections are being started up all over the county and recycling and composting is rising fast each year. Total 'waste' has been dropping for some years in Essex in spite of increased population.
Essex County Council have already permitted a 250,000 tonnes p.a. MBT (Mechanical Biological Treatment) plant at Stanway, with other waste plants, another MBT plant and an incinerator for 360,000 tonnes p.a. at Rivenhall. There is landfill capacity at Stanway for at least 50 years.
The Stanway MBT would be the size of seven football pitches. MBT plants dry the black bag waste by shredding and 'composting' it in massive warehouses to turn into polluting fuel pellets for an incinerator which is permitted on any of the Essex waste sites.
Here are our suggested responses:
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Q1: No. ECC has consistently overestimated levels of residual waste.
I object to all the 3 proposed major sites at Basildon, Stanway and Rivenhall. We need separated kerbside recycling collections of all materials including foodwaste, with local baling centres to minimise transport and reduce climate change gas emissions.
We oppose incinerators for burning MBT fuel pellets at any proposed site which destroys global resources, is polluting and increases climate change gases. - Q7: No. A local flexible approach, which invests in waste reduction, reuse, recycling and composting is needed with local waste management sites on existing industrial areas near all towns.
- Q8: No. 3 major sites are not "essential" to the Plan.
- Q9: No. The 3 major sites should have been properly assessed using the same criteria as the other sites have been judged against.
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Q13: No. Centralised large MBT sites on longterm contracts will lock Essex into destroying valuable global resources for ever
with incineration of RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel) or SRF (Solid Recovered Fuel) pellets produced by MBT plants
increasing pollution and climate change gases.
It would lead to lower recycling rates. Recycling rates are rising each year with half of Essex already recycling 58%. In previous waste consultations the public have opposed incineration and support recycling. -
Q14: No. Essex should not support waste incineration due to emissions and destruction of resources.
ECC has stated that all energy derived from burning waste can be classed as renewable. This is not true.
Only some of the energy from biomass can be classed as renewable.
The impact on climate change from burning waste includes destroying valuable resources, increasing pollution and transport from importing virgin materials. It will be negative in 'energy from waste' incinerators. As recycling and composting rates continue to improve, the residual waste left will be increasingly made up of non-biomass elements. - Q21: Yes. These are reasonable transport criteria, but the proposed plans for MBT plants will add to the serious impacts of noise, vibration and pollution, particularly by increasing HGV traffic.
Recycling Letters
Here are some recent (2011) letters to the press on the subject of recycling. The one to the East Anglian Daily Times, about kerbside recycling in Tendring, is a response to an article on their front page, "Shame of home waste figures", which compares the 27% of dry recycling collected in Tendring with the total recycling collections from other areas. Our letter points out the difference is made up mainly of garden waste, which is collected at the kerbside elsewhere, but at Household Waste Recycling Centres (which are included in the county council's figures) in Tendring.
- Tendring kerbside recycling not so dreadful, to EADT 21 March 2011
- Let's sort ourselves out at the kerbside!, to Essex County Standard 23 March 2011
- CBC survey on wheelie bins a year ago actually showed only 29 people preferred them, Gazette letters page, published 28th March 2011
- Last chance for Essex County Council to drop the costly waste disposal contracts, to Essex Chronicle 3 April 2011
- Last chance for Essex County Council to drop the costly waste disposal contracts, election-themed letter to Colchester Daily Gazette, 2nd May 2011
Another waste plan consultation
From 7th October to 2nd December 2010, ECC ran a "consultation" on their Waste Development Document, which followed much the same pattern as previous waste plans and previous consultations.
- Press release: Dump dirty waste plant contracts -- 12/10/10
Waste strategy tenders
On 19th Nov. 2009, the County put out tenders for the massive long-term contracts in their waste strategy. Press release: We must dump the County's waste plans.
There is now a "consultation" with four rubbish options as to how waste collections should be run, which are likely to lead to the imposition of wheelie bins. The deadline for responses has been extended to 29 Jan. 2010. Send your comments to FREEPOST NAT4433, Colchester CO1 1BR or fill in the survey online at www.colchester.gov.uk/recycling.
- Don't accept waste bribe, letter to the papers, printed 30/4/10 in the Gazette
- Colchester FoE Response to consultation (Word doc)
- Waste Options consultation, sent to Standard 5 Jan. 2010
- Four Rubbish Options, sent to Gazette 8 Dec. 2009 - printed on 10th under headline 'Vote for our alternative option on rubbish issue'.
"Essex Works" Survey
Outside Colchester Town Hall, 26 Feb. 08: opposing Conservative waste plans and the latest consultation.
Early in 2009, 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).
- Press Release: ECC springs new PFI bid on Councillors and Essex people -- 27/7/09
- Letter to Essex County Standard on separated kerbside collections, sent on 7/4/09
- Costly waste plans, Essex County Standard 28 Nov. 2008
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!
In 2007 we 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.
For instance, here are some recent letters to the press:
CBC
withdraws support from PFI bid Oct. 2008
Will ECC
opposition groups pull out of PFI bid?, May 2009
Page updated 15/4/12
