Waste decision ‘will burn millions’

By Simon Tostevin

Caption: Dr Barrie Mealing. (0562772)

THE States’ decision to continue with its plans for a 70,000-tonne
incinerator will cost the island millions, according to a member of the Waste Disposal People’s Panel.
Dr Barrie Mealing said the panel maintained its view that the States’ persisting to find a solution that accommodates an initial 45,000 tonnes of waste per annum rising to 70,000 was flawed.
He said it was going to end up costing islanders far more than proposals put forward by the panel before the debate in the House last week.
‘We will probably spend four times more than we should have done.’
The people’s panel in its report said that the plans put forward by the States were inappropriate on the grounds of cost, capacity and environmental impact.
The panel recommended the immediate purchase of a micro-incinerator that can deal with 20,000 tonnes per year. It would cost £8.5m. and cost £1.24m. per year to run.
That alone would have extended landfill life to 2031, it said.
Dr Mealing said it was now impossible to say how the waste issue was going to progress, with Public Services scheduled to return to the House early next year with its preferred option.
That could still be rejected by members and the island’s waste solution could once again grind to a halt as an amendment placed by Social Security minister Mark Dorey that would have required Public Services to report back with the three highest-scoring different technologies was also rejected, meaning members will have the chance only to say yes or no to one bid.
‘I really don’t know which way it is going to go. I would have liked to have seen the procurement opened up to more small-scale solutions.
‘The growth projections are demonstrably wrong because they have assumed 100% linkage between growth in GDP and waste arisings. And even the consultants would appear to have accepted in the context of Guernsey that the linkage would not be correct.’
The panel is scheduled to meet for the last time tonight. It was intended to run only until this month and members are expected to decide later whether it has a future.

Article posted on 7th August, 2008 - 2.29pm

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