Sustainable waste policy is possible

Over the last couple of months I have been working more on our waste policy - see draft earlier on this blog for 9th November with photos of a monster incinerator - we are getting closer to completion. Today I helped draft a letter that Greens sent out to local press outlining our position - see it here and below.

Photo: Compact waste pyrolysis - General view including internal view showing that half the building is just dry storage for the clinical waste which it "feeds" on.

One Green party member has recently visited the Compact Power pyrolysis plant in Avonmouth - pictured here - the feedback was very interesting - certainly this could be part of the solution.

Interestingly no one has yet raised conecrns re the County's support for the discredited Private Finance Initiative (PFI) funding - perhaps not surprising as it seems only Greens are raising concerns about this - it is privatisation by stealth: public money being transferred into already bloated private wallets. To use PFI for waste facilities would be a serious mistake - in my view we need to seek alternative funding streams - the Government makes this difficult as noted in previous blogs.


Greens welcome Gloucester City Council's cross-party support to oppose a monster incinerator (5/12/07). However the target to recycle or compost 60% of household waste by 2020 is grossly inadequate.

Some areas of Europe like Flanders are already achieving 70% diversion from landfill across the region. St. Arvans in Monmouthshire is being piloted as a “zero waste village” and is achieving 80%, the Stanleys near Stroud in a pilot has reached 57% in a very sort time. To look at anything less than 70% would be a serious mistake.

Greens welcome that the County Council are still open to a range of strategies. Instead of one massive incinerator that would need 'feeding' for its contract period of many years, the emphasis must be on 'reduce, reuse and recycle' and three or four small waste-to-energy facilities for the residual waste. These facilities would cut heavy lorry movements, be virtually free of dioxins, allow flexibility as waste levels fall in the future, would fit with the scale of buildings on our industrial estates and most importantly the heat from these plants can be used for local industry leading to money saved and less CO2 emissions.

This would be the most sustainable way towards a zero waste Gloucestershire. A small waste-to-energy facility at Javelin Park, Haresfield would no doubt still be unwelcomed by some but would be less likely to face the rightly massive opposition from many quarters if a large incinerator was proposed. Working together we can and must find local solutions to cutting and managing our waste.

Cllr Sarah Lunnon, Stroud District Green party