Highlands and Islands Greens have today condemned The Highland Council’s proposals, contained in its Highland-wide Development Plan Main Issues Report for three energy-from-waste (EfW) plants – one, two or all of which could be incinerators. The plants would be located on the Longman estate in Inverness, as well as sites in Skye, and Caithness.
“Once again, Highland Councillors are using a ‘back-door’ approach to press the hugely contentious issue of waste incineration,” stated Highlands and Islands Greens Regional List Candidate, Isla O'Reilly.
“Their previous attempt to burden Inverness with an energy-from-waste plant was buried deep within the Inner Moray Firth Local Development Plan.” “But their action now, using the same ‘under the radar’ method, seeks to impose not one but three EfW plants, in Inverness, Skye, and Caithness, all of them potentially incinerators. That is unacceptable.”
“The implications of these EfW provisions are clear: if they are not removed, it would be nearly impossible for anyone, including the Highland Council itself, to prevent energy-from-waste plants being constructed at these sites, provided all planning conditions were met.”
“If SNP, Labour, Liberal Democrats, and Independents really believe energy-from-waste incineration is right for the Highlands, then they should be open about it and allow their proposals to be subject to the full gaze of public scrutiny and initiate a proper and separate public consultation.”
The consultation period on the Highland-wide Development Plan Main Issues Report ends on the 30th January.
3 comments:
http://www.quantockeco.org.uk/case-studies/converting-garbage-into-clean-energy/
What do the Danish Greens think of their community-owned waste to energy plants?
What about a wee one for Nairn?
Out at the old quarry?
Public Consultation rather than dismissing out of hand?
Interesting article - personally I've been pro incineration in the Highlands for many years now, lets face it, we as a society produce mountains of rubbish each year, we recycle some of it here in the Highlands (yet we still seem to be miles behind Moray though, Glass collections anytime soon???) and the rest goes by articulated lorries along the already congested A96 to a landfill site in Peterhead, and yes even the rubbish produced by Green party members from the Highlands ends travelling along there too.
Think of the environmental impact of just transporting the thousands of tonnes of rubbish each week, not to mention the impact of the landfill site itself, the smell from the site at Peterhead can be overpowering for nearby residents at times.
Why could the old McDermott's fabrication yard at Whiteness not be used for an industrial incineration operation like this???
I'm unsure what it is the Green party are looking for and I'd be interested to see their answer to a problem which is not going to go away, the rubbish needs to go somewhere and the emission's figures for the various means of getting rid of it speak for themselves, perhaps they know of a way to vaporise the rubbish leaving no trace whatsoever and with no emission's, a new method which simply hasn't been shared with humankind yet?!
Given the choice of living in close proximity to an incinerator or a landfill site I know what I'd chose. Maybe Peterhead is "out of sight out of mind" for the Highland Green Party members, and perhaps a site visit to see and smell where our rubbish currently goes may open their eyes.
I'm not anti Green Party(far from it in fact) but on this occasion it seems to be "we just don't want it" with no offer of an alternative and in turn stalling any progress in this area, an incinerator will always upset nearby residents and impact the environment in many ways, just like the landfill at Peterhead (which we are happy? to continue to use just now) did when it went in, but in my honest opinion I feel it is without doubt the lesser of the evils.
The recycling facilities enjoyed by those in Moray and indeed enviable compared to Highland. The greater size of Highland probably plays some part in this, but I'm sure more could be done. It's absolutely tragic to see what some folk throw away, as has been mentioned before on these digital pages we need a Moray Wastebusters here in Nairn
As for having an incinerator. I'd like to see some initiative to force companies such as supermarkets to produce less packaging. Why do the likes of apples need to go in a container and then be covered in plastic, just one example
An incinerator might also be negative to expanding recycling as the thought might then be just burn it
No matter what filters you use within the incinerator to stop toxins going into the atmosphere what are you going to do with the infamous fly ash?
Personally I'd like to see us start with the root cause of our rubbish. The charge on plastic bags has been very successful in removing most of those from rubbish/landfill so how about a tax on packaging?
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