Action Briefing Dec 2003-Jan 2004
	The Newsletter of Birmingham Friends of the Earth

West Midlands News

Shropshire's Waste Plan

The Government’s Waste Strategy says that by 2014 only a third of municipal waste can be landfilled, at least a third must be recycled and the recovery of the last third is up to local decision making. However, if the one third recycling is treated as the maximum target then there is no choice but to incinerate the last third.

Despite reassurances that Shropshire County would work to maximise recycling/composting and any incineration would be a last resort, lo and behold, their Waste Local Plan just takes the Government's minimal targets and falls headlong into the trap laid by the Waste Strategy.

Shrewsbury Friends of the Earth will be arguing at the Plan Inquiry in January that a much higher recycling target is needed, i.e. 60%. This figure has been recommended by the Select Committee on the Environment, and has been taken up nationally by the Lib Dems. It is achievable now if current European best practice is adopted and should be much easier to achieve by 2014 when the whole recycling situation in this country should be transformed. Going for a higher recycling target also allows for any increases in national or European targets over the next ten years.

If the Shropshire Waste Local Plan ends up relying on some form of incineration then great problems lie ahead, not all of them environmental. The figures are too small for a mass burn incinerator but the newer gasification/pyrolosis processes are being held up. The scheme for Canterbury has just been pulled at the last minute and Derby’s is in abeyance with the company involved in great difficulties over it’s plant in Australia. The chances of finding a process that’s had a reasonably successful trial, let alone getting it through planning and up and running in the Waste Plan period, are very slim. Recycling is not only preferable but it’s also available. It’s the only sensible option.

We’ll be arguing our case at the Shirehall, Jan 13th. All welcome.

Dave Green, Shrewsbury Friends of the Earthext