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Action Briefing Oct 98/Nov 98
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Friends of the Earth Birmingham Action Briefing Oct 98/Nov 98 |
"I came back from the recent annual FOE Local Groups Conference (having learnt that Michael Meacher had admitted that Britain's recycling record was "frankly pathetic") wondering if our work will help improve Birmingham's record which was only 6.3% last year." -Writes Paul Webb.
Although Britain does lag far behind many parts of Europe and North America there are some notable exceptions which we would like Birmingham to follow. The London Borough of Sutton is already recycling and composting 35% of waste and is aiming for 80% by 2006. Ideally Birmingham should adopt their procedures as best practice.
As landfill facilities become more expensive and are phased out Birmingham (where waste is currently increasing by a greater volume than can be accommodated by increases in recycling) may choose to increase incineration facilities which seems to be the current favoured option. If so this will probably be the end of attempts to significantly increase recycling, as it is only economic to build large incinerators, with guaranteed minimum volumes, on long-term contracts.
Incinerators are simply not necessary if the following strategies are followed in the order stated:
Birmingham has one major incinerator at Tyseley operating close to its 350,000 tonne p.a. capacity. This volume alone amounts to approximately 350 kg p.a. for each Birmingham inhabitant. European guidelines state that waste should be stabilised at (or below) this level. The contract with the Tyseley Waste Disposal Company is effective and will be for most of the 25 year term, which remains. However, it is clear that Birmingham does not require any additional incineration facilities.
We are hopeful that all the public pressure that has built up this year will lead to discussions with the Council. Indeed we are increasingly receiving sympathetic messages from local MPs. In recent months the public has asked many questions of the Council, due in part, to all the information provided by FOE. It is now time for us to focus all our attention on one simple, clear message based on our two primary objectives, which are both reasonable and realistic.
As our objectives are similar to those currently in operation in London and in line with best practice elsewhere, Friends of the Earth (Birmingham) would like the City Council to confirm its commitment to the following:
In turn we need to ensure MPs and Councillors do not 'sit on the fence' with non-committal responses but actually state whether or not they support the above objectives.
If your councillor and/or MP have not specified their agreement with, and support for, the above objectives please, please, please write to them as soon as possible. A standard sample letter is enclosed with this newsletter for you to complete and post. If you compose your own letter, I suggest it is advisable to restrict yourself to these issues alone in order to avoid receiving confusing responses which give the greatest emphasis to other matters and thus do not provide the commitment required on the KEY issues.
This simple and reasonable message is probably the best and only way to effect change in policy. All necessary information regarding the issues is contained in the Action Briefing issues from April/May to date. Relevant contact addresses and phone numbers are as below:
After you have sent your letters:
If the response you receive is non-committal please continue to request a commitment of support. Once you have obtained a definite commitment of support, or otherwise, please forward a copy of the response to Paul Webb c/o Warehouse address (see back page)