The plant that burns Blair's rubbish is putting Britain's children at risk
7.30 am - A team of Greenpeace volunteers today shut-down and occupied Britain's 'flagship' waste incinerator in south London to protect the health of Britain's children. The SELCHP plant in Lewisham (1), which burns rubbish from several London boroughs as well as the Houses of Parliament and Downing Street, routinely releases significant quantities of chemicals called dioxins which the World Health Organisation classifies as causing cancer. The Government has already admitted that one in three Britons are taking in the maximum amount of dioxin which is considered 'safe' and more than half of British babies and toddlers are exceeding this limit.
The Greenpeace volunteers have pledged to occupy the plant until Onyx - the French multi-national which runs the incinerator - shut operations for good. One team of volunteers have attached themselves to huge rubbish grabbing claws that feed the furnace, shutting off its supply of fuel. A second team of Greenpeace climbers have scaled the 100-metre chimney to stop the plant releasing poisonous gases into the air. Even Government ministers have highlighted the dangers of incineration, Environment Minister Michael Meacher has said, "I repeat, the emissions from incinerator processes are extremely toxic. Some of the emissions are carcinogenicWe must use every reasonable instrument to eliminate them altogether. (2)"
Mark Strutt from south London, one of the Greenpeace volunteers occupying the top of the chimney, said:
"The industry calls this incinerator a flagship but it is needlessly putting our children at risk. The government has warned us that one in three people already consume more dioxins than is safe and half of all babies and toddlers exceed that limit. Yet records show that this plant discharges large amounts of these dangerous chemicals and the Environment Agency do nothing about it."
"The government's environment minister has said that emissions from incinerators are extremely toxic, yet Tony Blair sends his rubbish to an incinerator without a second thought. What's worse, he wants to build more than a hundred incinerators all over Britain and increase the amount of pollution across the country. "
The Government's waste strategy encourages councils to build more incinerators. Currently there are only fifteen working incinerators in Britain but this figure could rise to well over a hundred in the next ten years. Such a building programme would increase overall dioxin pollution and represent a massive waste of valuable resources that could come from recycling. Lewisham Council, which plays host to SELCHP, has estimated that it could recycle 92% of its waste but in fact recycles only 4%. In contrast the city of Edmonton in Canada has cut its waste by 70%, Flanders in Belgium by 59% and Canberra in Australia by 56%.
People do not need to live near SELCHP incinerator to risk exposure to dioxins. These chemicals remain in the environment for years and can travel long distances through the air. Dioxins contaminate soil and plants and then enter the food chain and can become concentrated in people's bodies. Incinerators release many other toxic chemicals as well as dioxins. These chemicals include heavy metals and acid gases as well as fine particles, which can damage lungs.
In May 2001, Greenpeace published Incineration and Human Health, a comprehensive review of all available scientific data on the impacts of incineration on human health and the effects of specific chemicals discharged from incinerators. The report reveals a wide body of evidence demonstrating negative health impacts of waste incineration, including a study published in 2000 showing that children living near incinerators were twice as likely to die of cancers. In May 2001, new medical research in the Lancet showed that toxic fumes from incinerators could be having alarming effects on the sexual development of children.
SELCHP claims to be a "combined heat and power station", however the system for supplying heat to the local community has never been installed. SELCHP does supply electricity to the national grid but generating energy from waste this way is extremely inefficient. It is a huge waste of energy to remanufacture materials that are burnt instead of recycling them. Burning plastics, which are made from oil, also gives off global warming gases. Britain already has a massive resource of green energy such as wind, wave and solar power and investing taxpayer's money in so called 'energy from waste' schemes is depriving these genuine sources of money.
Mark Strutt added,
"This government is allowing councils across the UK to press ahead with new incinerators that will poison us. Instead of being reckless with our health the government should replace SELCHP and the rest of Britain's incinerators with modern schemes to re-use, recycle and compost our rubbish."
Further information
For more information please contact the Greenpeace Press Office on 0207 865 8255
Notes to editors
On 13th June 2001, five Greenpeace volunteers were acquitted of charges of criminal damage relating to the occupation of Edmonton incinerator in October 2000
Greenpeace has written twice to Onyx, the operators of SELCHP incinerator asking for a meeting but they have ignored these requests Greenpeace has also written to councils across the UK about both the health effects of incinerators and safe ways to deal with rubbish which avoid burning it
(1) SELCHP - (South London Combined Heat and Power Station) burns rubbish from Lewisham, Greenwich and City of Westminster. It is soon to start receiving waste from Bromley
(2) Michael Meacher, Minister for Environment, evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on European Communities, 11th Report, HL Paper 71, 15 June 1999, Par 40
