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OTHER ISSUE 2 ARTICLES: EUROPEAN MONEY POURS IN FOR US PRINCES PARK PROTEST CONTINUES |
TOXIC CITY Liverpool City Council are currently considering
using Merseyside as a testing ground for toxic waste disposal. A ‘pyrolysis’
incineration plant could be sited at Stonebridge Lane waste depot in Gillmoss,
and would be the first of its type in the country. As we reported in Issue
1, the council claims that this new technology of ‘pyrolysis’ is safer
than other methods of incineration. The Environment Agency recently admitted
they have no idea how dangerous the new generation of incinerators will
be. Toxic residues are still produced by pyrolysis. One company, Siemens,
withdrew from the market after one of their plants in Germany had hospitalised
people living nearby when toxic emissions leaked from a pyrolysis plant.
Liverpool City Council’s scheme is the opposite of what the people of
Merseyside want. A survey conducted in 1999 by the Mersey Waste Disposal
Authority found that 89% of people in the Merseyside Area prefer a kerbside
recycling system to any other option for waste disposal. And in 2000,
a Citizens Jury came up with the same findings. One feature of pyrolysis
plants is that they require to be fed constantly with highly burnable
wastes such as plastic and paper. There is therefore no incentive to recycle
or cut back on waste. In the US some local municipal authorities have
been forced to import waste from outside in order to comply with their
contract. The Merseyside Councils would be locked into a deal that guarantees
the local production of toxic waste for the foreseeable future. This is
why the Council is playing down kerbside collection as an option. The
plant would operate alongside a highly inefficient waste sorting facility
to produce the necessary volume of waste for burning. One similar facility
in Ipswich had to be closed down because it was only able to recycle 10%
of the waste it processed. Kerbside collection typically recycles 80%
of possible waste, creates more jobs and improves the financial stability
of local communities. If Liverpool City Council get their way, the city
will become a toxic testing ground for a new generation of highly dangerous
technologies. And the only winners would be the multinational waste disposal
companies that stand to profit from it; Merseyside local authorities will
subsidise the toxic profiteers to the tune of around £2million a year.
The Liverpool Citizens Jury, on hearing of these plans in June, decided
to carry on meeting, and have been campaigning for kerbside collections
& against the pyrolysis plans ever since. Because of this campaign, the
council has had to delay & reconsider their hairbrained scheme. |
