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Plea for views on waste crisis
A CAMPAIGN group from the Pulborough area is urging people to join a debate on the future of waste management in West Sussex.
Wiggonholt Association chairman Peter Flatter and secretary Janet Aidin have been learning about the use of incinerators and new fears highlighted by environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth that even state-of-the-art incinerators may not be the environmentally-friendly answer once believed.
Landfill is a hot topic in the area with waste firm Veolia proposing a scheme at Rock Common in Washington and concerns about a previous plan to use the Laybrook Brickworks for rubbish.
West Sussex County Council is currently working on its minerals and waste local development framework for household rubbish and next week (May 23) will look at an application for an 'energy recovery facility' for commercial waste at Lancing.
Mrs Aidin said she was pleased that those directly affected by such proposals were speaking out, but urged the wider community to get involved.
"We can't regard landfill as state of the art or environmentally friendly at all, we need to consider the alternatives," she said.
"With that in mind we went to Portsmouth with the north-west Sussex group of the Federation of Sussex Amenity Societies to have a look at an incinerator at work there, and it really was very impressive in an attractive modern building.
"We thought this could be the answer West Sussex has been looking for, but now a paper has been published by Friends of the Earth which suggests that incinerators are almost as damaging to the environment as landfill.
"The ideal solution would be to have no refuse, which is just not realistic.
"The next option is to recycle and reuse as much as possible, but when you've done as much recycling as you can, what do you do with the remaining rubbish?
"At the moment recycling in West Sussex is at 30 per cent, which means 70 per cent is still put into landfill."
Mrs Aidin said that left two big problems: pollution by transport and pollution by emissions.
Many people have been concerned about carcinogens, and Friends of the Earth had made it clear the biggest concern should be greenhouse gases, which are the key contributor to global warming and climate change.
The organisation's research favours anaerobic digestion as the best way to deal with waste and gives a league table of waste disposal methods according to their likely impact on global warming.
"It's important that we all inform ourselves in order to take a view and put our own interests forward," she said.
Mr Flatter said the key to managing waste in the future was reducing the amount we all create.
"Unfortunately we live in a world where convenience will always be the first choice above other concerns," he said.
"I do not believe we will reduce the waste our society produces, but it is vital to keep an open mind, to use new technology and to better understand the problems.
"I think there has been too little information made available to the public to allow people to make any judgements on the issue of waste, especially about incinerators.
"That means groups like the Wiggonholt Association have an important role in informing the public about the alternatives and about the good and the harm methods of waste management can create."
Mr Flatter said he thought the most important thing was an open debate that would lead the different options to be explored and a plan put in place that would remain for many years to come and not fall victim to the pressures of politics.
Mrs Aidin added: "There are lots of issues to consider, like the role of recycling sites.
"If thousands of cars visit a recycling site, is that helping the environment?"
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Weather for Horsham
Friday 25 May 2012
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