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FIRST BIG INCINERATOR BATTLE: SURREY

06 Dec 2001

SURREY DECIDES ON MONSTER INCINERATORS

Just twenty one days after Margaret Beckett's Waste Summit, Surrey County Council is due to decide (Thursday 6 - Friday 7 December) whether to allow three massive and controversial incinerators to be built in the county [1]. At the waste summit Environment Minister Margaret Beckett announced a review of the Government's waste strategy. She is under intense pressure to introduce a moratorium on incineration and set more ambitious longer term recycling targets. A number of other European countries already recycle around a half of all waste. Surrey currently only recycles 17 per cent of household waste.

Surrey County Council officers have recommended that two of the sites - Slyfield at Guildford and Copyhold at Redhill - be rejected, whilst a third, Clockhouse at Capel, be approved. Friends of the Earth, which has been supporting vigorous local campaigns in communities around the proposed incinerators, is calling for all three to be turned down.

FOE, and other incineration opponents, argue that incineration wastes resources, causes pollution and does not solve the problem of landfill (incineration ash makes up 30-40 % of the mass of the original waste). Surrey's waste strategy should be based on a properly resourced kerbside recycling system and other sustainable waste management initiatives.

Mike Childs, Senior waste campaigner at Friends of the Earth said:

"Incineration is polluting, wasteful and deeply unpopular. Surrey County Council must reject these proposals and insist on a sustainable waste strategy for the next twenty five years. They abandon incineration and ensure that everyone in the county is served by a door-step recycling scheme. Surrey giving the go-ahead to incineration would make a mockery of Margaret Beckett's review of the waste strategy."

NOTES

1.     The decision will be taken by the Planning Committee which is discussing Surrey's waste management strategy for the next 25 years. The Committee meets at County Hall, in Kingston-upon-Thames over the two days. It is expected to reach decisions on the Redhill and Capel sites on Thursday 6th and on Guildford on Friday 7th. FOE will be available in Kingston on Friday.

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