Greens Seek Council Support for 'Recycling Not Incineration'

30 January 2006 - Green Party councillors have tabled a motion to Norwich City Council asking for City Councillors to unite in opposition to plans by the County Council to burn waste and to agree funding for improved recycling facilities in Norwich. The motion will be considered by City Councillors at tomorrow's full council meeting (Tuesday 31st January). The Green councillors are playing an active role in the campaign incineration, arguing that there is a range of environmental and health-related reasons to opposing the burning of waste.

Councillor Adrian Ramsay, Co-ordinator of the Green Party Group on Norwich City Council, said: "I hope the other parties on the City Council will join us in opposing the plans by Norfolk County Council for an incinerator to be built at Costessey. We are concerned about the effect of emissions from incinerators on human health and the environment. NAIL (the anti-incineration group in Nottingham) has informed us that there have been dozens of pollution breaches from the Nottingham incinerator – and that pollution levels there are monitored by an outside body just twice per year. Furthermore, the permitted emission level from incinerators in the UK is 100 times higher than in the US, which perhaps accounts for why areas of localised poor health around the Nottingham incinerator closely mirror the main paths of incinerator emissions there."

The Green Party believes that reducing waste and increasing recycling levels are the only environmentally-friendly ways of tackling the waste problem.

Councillor Ramsay continued: "Norwich has a very poor recycling rate. This could be massively improved if the council invested in truly comprehensive recycling facilities for the city. Since the Greens gained the balance of power at City Hall we have been able to secure money for some improvements to local recycling facilities and these have started to be put in place in recent months. (For example, there are now two plastic bottle recycling banks in Norwich for the first time.) However, many more improvements are needed and our motion asks the other parties to commit to funding further such improvements in the 2006/07 council budget."

The recycling level in Norwich is currently around 15%. This puts the city in 337th place out of 393 councils in England, according to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Other parts of Norfolk have recycling rates approaching 40%, which other parties of the EU have rates of 70% or even 80%. Canberra went from 0% to 59% recycling in just eight years.

Green Party councillors argue that the appropriate level of investment could see a recycling rate of over 60% in Norwich within a few years and that a resource recovery park should be set to enable the residual waste to be sorted into different types of usable materials.

NOTES

The full meeting of Norwich City Council is on Tuesday, 31st January, starting at 7:30pm at City Hall. It is open to the public.
The full text of the Green Party motion:
Incineration and recycling

Councillor Ramsay to move, and Councillor Read to second:

This Council notes that:
- The disposal of residual waste (i.e. waste that is not reused or recycled) is increasingly problematic. Space currently approved for landfill is due to run out in the next 5 to 10 years, according to the Environment Agency.
- The County Council intends to build an incineration plant at Costessey in order to 'treat' residual waste.
- There are severe worries that the prevailing wind would bring hazardous air pollutants and toxic residues from flue gas treatments into the City, threatening water and air quality and therefore the health of Norwich residents.
- Incineration undermines incentives to reduce waste and increase recycling levels as incinerators need to be fed with a certain amount of waste each year to be economically viable. Conversely, by significantly increasing local recycling levels the case for incineration can be undermined.
- Following last year’s budget discussions, some improvements to recycling facilities in Norwich have recently taken place. In particular, the inclusion of metals in the green box scheme and the installation of two plastic bottle banks are good steps forward. However, many further improvements to the scheme are needed before recycling levels in Norwich can be massively increased and the Council can be on track to achieve its stated aim of 'zero waste'.
This Council Resolves:
- To write to the County Council to express opposition to plans to build an incinerator in Costessey and further incinerators elsewhere in Norfolk.
- To write to South Norfolk District Council and Costessey Parish Council to inform them that Norwich City Council has resolved to oppose this incinerator.
- To ask the Executive to include in its 2006/7 budget proposals funding for further significant improvement to the recycling scheme, including funding for at least three further plastic bottle recycling banks, for the rapid installation of recycling banks at blocks of flats across the city and for a publicity campaign aimed specifically at promoting “reduction and reuse”.