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Dear Sensible People,
There has been an outbreak of "incinerator fever"
within the bureaucratic decision-makers of England. The symptoms are the
building of huge (and I mean huge!) industrial plants that actually burn
"organic and biodegradable waste" along with anything else you can imagine that
is put into the rubbish bin at home and at work thereby producing a lethal
cocktail of airborne pollution (they admit this - one incinerator alone annually
produces 180 tonnes nitrogen oxides, 26 tonnes sulphur oxides, 91 kilotonnes of
carbon dioxide, several tonnes of carcinogenic particulates, 0.1 tonnes of
hydrogen fluoride, and 'small amounts' of dioxins). The 12 existing
incinerators in the UK already kill 88 people a year from the airborne emissions
and the authorities are urging for more of them! The residues left from
incineration are dangerously contaminated with heavy metals and constitute
a grave problem for their safe disposal. The authorities at Cleveland (UK)
fell for the idea of an incinerator (energy from waste they called it) and in
the first year of operation the people of Cleveland began recycling much more
leading to a shortfall of waste which meant that the incinerator operators were
unable to burn it so Cleveland had to pay the operators 147,000 pounds Sterling
on top for failing to meet contractual obligations. Now, of course,
Cleveland do not want the recycling message to be heard.
I have become embroiled in the campaign to fight
incineration in the beautiful county of Cornwall in the UK where there are plans
afoot to impose another such incinerator. My approach has been to tell
anyone who will listen about anaerobic digestion and the need to sort rubbish
out at source so that greatly beneficial recycling can happen. I have told
people about the advances in Scandinavia where anaerobically derived biogas is
used for motor vehicles (the ZEUS Project) and electricity generation, and how
the residues, post digestion, are used for precision farming without affecting
or polluting water supplies. Cornwall is a popular tourist attraction and
is predominantly a rural community where there are literally thousands of tonnes
of animal manure constituting a problem currently dealt with by "muck spreading"
on the fields. TB has broken out and cross infection is at work using
this method of disposing with manure, but TB is blamed on the badger population
which is being culled. Human excreta at various stages of treatment
(derived from cesspits) is also spread on the land. Neither animal or
human waste is currently considered by the authorities to be a problem and is
scheduled to continue to be dealt with as is.
My company, Ico-Tech, (www.ico-tech.com site under construction
but I can be reached at jthomas@ico-tech.com ) is now (March
20th) relocating to the frontline at Cornwall to fight the incinerator monster
and introduce anaerobic digestion as an alternative. The decision makers
of Cornwall know nothing at all about anaerobic digestion and have been greatly
misinformed by "experts" who are hard at it selling incinerators at 50 million
pounds Sterling a go.
Cornwall has an extra population of 4 million
tourists each summer with all their waste as well to take into account.
Cornwall can grow an immense supply of energy crops to add to the huge feedstock
reserves. The European Union has decreed that by the year 2005, no organic
waste may go into landfill, and Cornwall's landfill sites are almost full anyway
- hence the incinerator idea.
The population of Cornwall do not want the
incinerator but are told there is no alternative. I know this to be wrong
having visited and seen for myself the anaerobic digestion technology at work in
Sweden. The media, as yet, ignore what I have to say on the subject.
However, the population of Cornwall I have met and heard about in the media are
ready to institute sorting of waste out at source for feedstock and other
recycling purposes.
Such is today. I ask you for advice,
comments, suggestions, support (technical and otherwise), & general help
both tactical and strategic. Cornwall has an ambition to become a Green
Peninsula and is about to throw it all away forever in a dirty
furnace. I cannot stand by and watch this lunacy have its own
way.
Thank you.
John Thomas
Ico-Tech
Development &
Management
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