Greenpeace today welcomed the report on sustainable waste management by the House of Commons Select Committee on the Environment, Transport and the Regions. The report condemns the Government's policy on waste incineration and raises real doubts about the safety and regulation of the technology.
The report itself says that "incineration will never play a major role in truly sustainable waste management" and that "the health effects, which result from an incinerator's emissions, are not yet fully known". Commenting on the report, Mark Strutt, the Toxics Campaigner at Greenpeace, said:
"This report is a serious body-blow to incineration and the Government's plans to unleash a wave of incinerators across the country. No planning authority will be able to grant planing permission for an incinerator when a respected body such as the Environment Committee concludes that the health effects are unknown. Building incinerators is like playing Russian roulette with people's health."
The Environment Committee report comes on the same day that Greenpeace revealed that of 84 current and proposed incinerator schemes, 48 are in Labour controlled planning authorities and 61 are in Labour held parliamentary constituencies.
Mark Strutt commented:
"Labour is completely isolated as the only mainstream political party which favours incineration despite massive public opposition. It's deluded scheme to fill the country with waste incinerators is creating a political time bomb and voters will ultimately not forgive them."
The Environment Committee also attacked the Environment Agency for poor regulation of incinerators. The Committee concluded that:
"Where recurrent breaches of limit values are found to occur, the operator should be fined. If breaches continue to occur, the plant should be closed down."
Mark Strutt said:
"The Environment Agency has a lamentable record in regulating incinerators. There have been 899 breaches of emission limits since 1996 and no prosecutions. Enough is enough, it is time that the Government abandoned incineration forever and committed itself to an intelligent waste strategy which adopts a reduce, reuse and recycle approach to waste management along with the composting of biodegradable waste."
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