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GREENS CALL FOR SUSTAINABLE WASTE POLICY |
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 10th December 2007
Greens are in the process of putting together a comprehensive policy on the County's waste. Here is a letter from the Green party Stroud District Council leader Sarah Lunnon
Copyrighted photo reprinted here with permission of Seattle-based photographer Chris Jordan. See more photos.
Letter to The Citizen:
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
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