Knutsford residents are set to receive a new Silver recycling bin which will be used to collect all dry recyclable materials including a wide range of plastics.  The bins are due to be rolled out from September 12th 2011 and will bring Knutsford into line with other areas in Cheshire East Council.

As Cheshire East achieved a recycling rate of just under 50% in 2009/10 it is hoped that the introduction of this new bin will mean that recycling rates can rise even further throughout the County.  With the National average recycling rate being around 40% it means that the North West can once again become a trail blazer for the rest of the UK.

Whilst these great recycling rates and improved recycling services are good news in their own right, it’s even better news for those campaigning against the proposed Covanta incinerator in Middlewich, as it once again underlines the basic flaw in the plan which is that there will never be sufficient material to burn to make the plant worthwhile.  The more the people of Cheshire recycle the less material that can end up in an incinerator.

Campaigners in Runcorn against the massive 850,000 tonne incinerator at Weston Point are up in arms over the latest twist in the saga of this incinerator.  The firm behind it, Ineos, want to increase the amount of refuse it carries by road from 85,000 to 480,000 tonnes a year, despite the lower figure being a firm commitment at the time of the planning application.

The reason they now want this change is that there are two linked issues which mean they cannot bring the waste in by rail as previously planned.  The first issue is that there is insufficient waste within the North West to be fed into the plant by rail, and secondly there is a lack of rail head availability at any of the other likely waste sources around the country which could potentially supply them with waste by rail.  This, they say, leaves them no option other than to bring in the waste by road.

Campaigners are furious over this ‘u-turn’ and are determined to stop it, and efforts on their part means that currently the number of Halton councillors objecting to this has risen from 8 to 16, along with the support of two local MP’s.  Despite this there is still a recommendation on the table for the planning committee to approve this change.

The lesson for campaigners all around the country is that you cannot believe what you are told at any point of the planning stage, as once planning permission is given it is almost impossible to stop any changes.

Campaigners in Northwich and Middlewich are watching these developments with interest as in both areas the transport issue is high on the agenda, but more importantly the revelation that Ineos is finding it impossible to source sufficient waste to fuel their plant from with the North West must cast severe doubts over claims by both Tata and Covanta that they are looking to build these plants to deal with local waste.  If Ineos, 15 miles away, cannot find sufficient waste to fuel their as yet unfinished plant, where do Tata and Covanta think they will be able to find it from?  I think we should be told.

CHAIN has received many requests for comments on the result of the judicial review initiated by Cheshire West and Chester Council and Cheshire East Council into the decision by the Government to withdraw funding for their joint municipal waste management plans. In response, we are releasing the following statement:-

The decision is a serious setback to the plans of TATA and Covanta to build waste incinerators in this area. The reason given by the Government for stopping the PFI funds in October 2010 was that there is already sufficient planned waste treatment capacity in Cheshire to meet EU landfill targets until at least 2020. This has now been supported following a legal challenge. We anticipate that this will be fully taken into account by the Government in the public inquiries currently underway into both waste incinerator proposals. There is also the hope that TATA and Covanta will stop claiming that their monster plants are about avoiding landfill and own up about their real motives which are simply to make huge profits from burning rubbish from other parts of the UK at the expense of the health and well being of our community. Quite simply, their incinerators are not needed and not wanted in Cheshire.

CHAIN have today received a really nice email from the lovely people at Primafilm in Italy highlighting their new video, a trailer for which can be found on You Tube.

They are making what they claim is the worlds largest petition against incineration by inviting people to send them their names to be included on the end credits of the film.  They hope to amass over 50,000 names for these credits, thereby making it not only a potent message against the dangers of incineration but also the longest film credits in the world.

If you would like your name to be included in the credits for this film then all you need to do is send an email with your name directly to the film company and they will do the rest.  To send an email to them just click here.

In the meantime please check out their website and see the video they have produced at sporchidamorire.com

The Pre Inquiry meeting into the proposed Incinerator in Northwich got underway today with the Inspector Elizabeth Hill opening the meeting and welcoming all the interested parties.  The great news is that despite the fact that it was out at Northwich Victoria FC, on a morning in the school holidays, there was a fabulous turnout of over 200 people.  At one point early in the proceedings the Inspector had to halt the meeting as there were too many people standing at the back, and provision for more seating had to be made.

After general introductions she progressed to the vexed question of the timing of this Inquiry, coming as it will the day after the Middlewich Public Inquiry comes to an end.  Tata/EON along with Cheshire West and Cheshire Council (CWAC) both lobbied to keep the dates as they currently stand however CHAIN argued that it was inappropriate to keep to this date as they would have finished the Middlewich Inquiry the day before.  CHAIN argued that on recent evidence it was unlikely that the Middlewich Inquiry would finish on time leaving them absolutely no time to prepare and the real danger that they would not even be able to be present on that day.  After hearing the arguments the inspector said that she would give a written ruling on this point later this week.

Tata/EON then asked for a variation to the normal running order of these meetings meaning that those who oppose would have to present first.  Quite rightly the Inspector denied this application as there were no good reasons for changing it.

The meeting then covered off all the other procedural aspects of the Inquiry, due in October, and following a short recess for lunch it reconvened, cleared the last few items on the agenda and closed.  The photos of the day show that not only were people queuing to get into the meeting but there was also a protest outside the meeting before hand to show the Inspector the depth of local feeling against this particular plan.

The Northwich Pre Inquiry Meeting (PiM) opens tomorrow morning at 11.00am at Northwich Victoria’s ground which is at Wincham Avenue, Northwich, CW9 6GB.  CHAIN are encouraging everyone to be there by 10.30am as there will be an opportunity for a photograph and to show the strength of local feeling about this proposal, before the PiM commences at 11.00.

Whilst the meeting will not make any decisions on the proposed plant it is the first opportunities for the opposing sides to see the arguments that will be presented at the Inquiry when it opens in October.

So if you can get down, please do so and make your voice heard.

In a quite unbelievable story, it appears that the Danes are planning a new incinerator for Copenhagen which incorporates a ski slope on the outside of the building.  In a recent story in the Guardian the architect Bjarke Ingels winning design is set to replace the current out of town incinerator with a new state of the art facility which will allow visitors to ski down the outside.

Denmark is often hailed by the pro incinerator lobby as being a great example of how modern facilities, sited in urban centres, can blend in with the environment and provide a cheap source of energy with no risk of harm to human health.  The other side of the coin says that not only are they conducting the greatest long term experiment of the age into the effects of living in the shadow of an incinerator with the local population as guinea pigs, they are also now at the point where they are burning refuse that should have been recycled.

Of course the answer will lie in the future where one side or the other will be vindicated, but in the meantime it seems that the designers of this new plant have forgotten why the chimney stacks are build so high in the first place.  The height of the chimney dictates the area over which the particulate matter it emits will disperse, and the reason for this is that no matter how you dress it up the output of the chimney will be toxic.  So if you already know that this output is toxic in concentration, and that the plant will periodically emit higher than permitted concentrations of dioxins, furans and other toxic materials, how clever is it that you should be allowing people to stand up right near the top of the chimney and breathe this stuff in?  From this distance it appears to be nothing short of sheer lunacy but you can’t legislate for this type of behaviour.

In the meantime we need to make sure that whenever we take the fight to Covanta in Middlewich and Tata/Brunner Mond in Northwich we need to consistently remind them that incinerators are not safe.  And by continually pressing the point as to why the chimneys need to be as high as they are planned to be we can expose the fact that if they are any smaller then poisonous particulates could easily concentrate on the ground below.  So whilst we can’t stop the Danes behaving madly, we can prevent that madness spreading to Cheshire.

Once again the Guardian has done a wonderfully balanced job of reporting on the pre Inquiry meeting to be held next Tuesday, yet the entire report seems to avoid using the word Incinerator at all.  The comments underneath the article are probably mor revealing than the reporting itself and you can read the story and comments here.

Let’s be clear, the proposal for this plant is to drop a 600,000 tonne incinerator on the edge of town and let it sit there for the next 40-50 years.  There seems to be clear disregard for the residents of Northwich and any reassurance that is requested is met with standard PR spin which contains a lot of platitudes and little concrete reassurance.  And that is because they cannot offer any reassurance or guarantees. Once you build an Incinerator you are stuck with it – for a lifetime.  If it goes wrong it happens on your doorstep.  If it breaches its emissions those same emissions will be inhaled by you and your family.  If it catches fire (one of the many hazards of an incinerator ironically) it’s on fire next to our houses, schools and community.  If Northwich has one of it’s inversions (a regular occurrence in spring and autumn) then the emissions from the chimney, no matter how high it is, will not disperse and we will all inhale the muck it pours out.

So, if you care about where you live and the health of you and your family, you could do worse than attend the Pre Inquiry meeting at Northwich Victoria Football Club next Tuesday, 26th July and register your protest.

A report today from Wallingford in New Jersey USA states that Covanta has been ordered to pay a $400,000 fine and been forced to upgrade one of it’s incinerators due to an emissions violation last summer.  You can read the original story here.

Disturbingly the plant was forced to close in July 2010 and still remains closed one year on, forcing the operator to truck it’s waste to other plants for incineration.  This scenario is not one that is ever considered as part of the planning application, but were it to happen in Cheshire it would inevitably result in the waste being transported by road all over the county.

In addition the plant was found to be emitting twice its permitted levels of Dioxin yet it still remained in use after this was discovered.  There is no evidence to show how long it had been emitting these dangerous levels of dioxins

CHAIN and other protestors have long campaigned against Incineration as a method of waste disposal as it is inherently dangerous and this is yet another example of why it is essential to adopt a precautionary approach to Incineration.