Greens deplore Costessey incineration plant plans

1 December 2005 - Norfolk Greens today deplore the County Council proposed selection of Waste Recycling Group Ltd as the preferred contractor for the Residual Waste Treatment project at Costessey without wide discussion and consultation with local residents. This contractor’s proposal is for an incineration plant which would be environmentally damaging and could have health issues associated with it, over time.

Norfolk County Councillor Andrew Boswell (pictured right) said: “This decision appears to have been made by a non-transparent process before most Councillors have been even seen the details of the proposals. The people of Norfolk have not been given any proper say on the proposed building of an incinerator in their - in our - County.

“It is of great concern to us that incineration technology has apparently been chosen over the more sustainable method of waste disposal of anaerobic digestion. People don’t like incineration and they are rightly worried about the hazardous air pollutants which could be emitted from this sort of plant – the residents of Costessey won't be at all happy with this decision. The plant will need a very high chimney which will be an eye-sore for miles around.“

County Councillor Chris Hull added: “Norfolk should be looking much more at zero waste initiatives, and also at using much more environmental friendly waste methods such as anaerobic digestion which countries like Denmark successfully use on a large scale."

Norfolk Greens' Press Officer Councillor Rupert Read said, "The Conservatives are saying that this is an 'energy-from-waste' scheme, and a form of recycling, but all that is just spin: this is a fateful move away from the real goals of recycling more materials and of reducing the amount of waste produced in the first place (e.g. from packaging). In many European countries and localities, far higher rates of recycling are achieved, and no incineration is used: Norfolk should be catching up with the excellent environmental records of such places, and not taking the retrograde step of endorsing incineration, a step that would mean Norfolk abandoning forever Friends of the Earth's recommended goal of a 'zero-waste' strategy.”