North Wales Residual Waste Treatment Project

Below is the briefing that FoE groups have sent out to the councils involved in the “North Wales Residual Waste Treatment Project”

It sets out a very clear case against the building of an energy from waste incinerator, and also highlights some of the alternatives – more details are available on the alternatives should anyone wish to see them.

North Wales Residual Waste Treatment Project
Summary briefing for Councillors, May 2011

Three waste management companies (Sita UK, Veolia ES Aurora and Wheelabrator Technologies) have now been shortlisted for the North Wales Residual Waste Treatment Project (NWRWTP), which seems certain to be an energy from waste incinerator. The cost will be a staggering £600-800 million over 25 years. Friends of the Earth has previously raised concerns over this project that still have not been adequately addressed. We wish to summarise these concerns once again for all AMs and councillors (for the complete version of our comments, please email rick.mills@btinternet.com .

 • The planned NWRWTP capacity is 150,000 tonnes per annum, which is far above the tonnage of residual waste that will be available if the Welsh Assembly’s waste minimisation targets are met.

• Contracts for large-scale projects like the NWRWTP involve guaranteed tonnages with penalty clauses. If, as we firmly predict, there is not enough residual waste available to meet the guarantees, the result will be penalty payments or burning of resources that could have been recycled. Furthermore, there will be a threat of having to import waste to the incinerator from England.

• As a result of the guaranteed tonnages, incineration depresses recycling rates.

• The Welsh Assembly targets for recycling and waste minimisation are achievable. Some parts of the world currently exceed the 70% recycling target for 2025, and South Somerset has already almost met the Assembly’s 2025 waste minimisation target. With improved technologies and packaging, a recycling rate of 85% should become achievable in the relatively near future.

• It has been claimed we need projects like the NWRWTP to avoid EU fines for sending waste to landfill. In fact such fines will only apply to biodegradable waste, and there is no imminent threat of exceeding landfill allowances.

• Against a background of rising commodity and oil prices, it makes no sense to burn resources that could be recycled or re-used.

• Incinerators create potentially harmful emissions and leave a hazardous byproduct in the fly ash that remains.

• There are smaller scale, more flexible, cheaper solutions for dealing with residual waste that would also be a very significant source of job creation. Small mechanical and biological treatment (MBT) plants could be used to treat the reducing volume of residual waste and render it inert and ready for landfill.

• Incineration releases greenhouse gases.

We hope that you will be opposing the NWRWTP and opting for simple and safe solutions that will save taxpayers money and benefit the environment.