Recycling firms rue ‘rash States’
Friday 5th March 2010, 2:29PM GMT.
RECYCLING companies are unhappy with the decision to throw out the Suez incinerator.
Guernsey Recycling chairman Alan Crowe said deputies had made a rash move without having an alternative plan in place.
‘I was a supporter of Suez because it was well costed and a legitimate way of resolving the island’s waste problem.
‘They’ve now spent about £10m. and are no further forward,’ he said.
The Assembly last week voted for a waste minimisation strategy instead.
‘If it’s not achievable, I don’t know what we will do with 30,000 to 40,000 tonnes of waste,’ said Mr Crowe (pictured).
He said Guernsey Recycling was Suez’s nominated partner for a material recovery facility.
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If the Chairman of the Guernsey Recycling thinks that Suez was a good idea then he should resign. It is shocking that a solution as inappropriate as an incinerator should ever have been considered for Guernsey and allowed to progress to the stage that it did.
A waste minimalisation strategy is the easiest to implement, it is the most cost effective and the most sustainable and environmentally friendly.
The fact that both Guernsey Recycling and the Environment Department were backing the Suez proposal is disgraceful and calls in to question whether these bodies are fit for purpose.
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Both of these companies had vested interests in the Suez solution so their stance isn’t really surprising.
What this and other articles in today’s press do highlight is that any green paper needs to tackle the split between public and private waste management so that both can survive and compliment each other. Thats probably the biggest / most complicated aspect of a waste minimisation policy.
Choosing solotions for kerbside, AD plants, MRF etc will be much simpler to resolve (in my opinion)than the divide between private and public run waste management.
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Missing the point though!
Who wants toxic ash (I expect Guernsey will get a share back from Jersey), and not forgetting that in order to ensure the minimum toxic ash in the chimney/air then you have to feed the moster to make sure it has enough to get hot enough as it burns.
Why do you think Jersey are happy to take our rubbish because their’s is not hot enough and causing more toxic gasses then it should (plus the gate fee will be warmly accepted I expect).
The recycling arm of that incinerator would hardly be that sucessfull as it was realised more waste would have to be fed to the incinerator.
Recyling is not about the money for the goods collected, it is about putting materials back into the manufacturing chain as we can not rape the planet indenfinately for raw commodoties to support our extremely greedy and throw away lifestyle.
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What I don’t understand is why NO ONE! is asking how much this man has already made out of Suez or how much he stood to make if the project were successful or how much he stands to make out of the £3.2m gate tax to be levied at the landfill?
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Guern Abroad
Sorry to tell you that you are slightly off the mark re the design of the ” NEW ” Jersey incinerator as is actually two incinerators.
One stream can handle Jerseys waste while the other side is off line for maintenance or just not needed. Apparently it is out of date already. Plasma incinerators seem to be the safer non toxic and cheaper choice.
You are correct about the toxic pollution it’s the micro p2.5 that we breath in. Your medical officer of health should be suspended ( the same for Jersey) if they are on record as stating there is no health risk.
Davey.
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To learn more about Suez’s general MO. people should look at;
gdfsuez.eu.com
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I have just looked at the site posted by Rob, you should type http://www.gdfsuez.eu.com to get at, but it is very interesting. A lot more background on the Incinerator and Guernsey Recycling.
Why can’t people see that this incinerator is a really bad idea, which has come about by the greed of a few individuals?
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I just found this article on a new recycling robot. It is called the DustBot and rides around on a Segway piking up trash. Pretty cool!
http://thegreenertruth.com/2010/03/recycling-robot-the-dustbot/
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I am pleased that incinerator is not going ahead, but if you look at those poor souls in Cornwall. They thought they had succeeded in rejecting the incinerator, but because of the financial pressure brought to bear by Sita UK, they will still end up with one!! Let’s hope that it is not the same in Guernsey.
I have too have looked at http://www.gdfsuez.eu.com, the previous contributor is right. There is a lot of good of information on there about the island incinerator.
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This just goes to show that Alan and Dan are yesterdays men.
They are not prepared to commit to the future.
Also in the feature, John Norman was worried about the future of his business.
I stand to be corrected but, did’nt he sell out to Dan last year?
Take notice States when deciding who to work with in the future.
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The bottom line here is Guernsey Recycling would have gained substantially from all our efforts with our well meant recycling initiatives.
As suckers we would go through the motions of washing cartons & plastic food containers etc.
Our good intentions would then be abused by them selling different loads onto Suez at a price determined by their calorific values.
Hardly recycling. All the higher value items like metals would still be recycled as normal & the above company would have distanced itself from a green enterprise into a mean one.
No doubt this will still happen with Jerseys incinerator. No green company should be allowed to partake in this kind of activity.
Green & also mean.
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You’d think somebody in charge of recycling would be totally against the proposal, it’s obvious they don’t actually care about recycling, more about a deal with Suez if you ask me!
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Abi
I fear you might be right, not due to financial pressure but from a number of deputies who intend to bring a further Requete to get last weeks decision overturned based on the fact that the members of Environment will now be free to vote. If this happens I predict absolute public uproar.
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Steve Le Cheminant
I think John sold part of his business to Dan (thats what John told me).
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If there is a requete it will be interesting to see how Bernie who is now 100% behind the waste minimum stratergy (and pigs might fly) will vote? or is he part of the force behind the potential requete?
There will be massive public uproar if this goes back for another vote.
I wonder if those seeking to bring the requete would still be doing so if the decision had went the other way and 4 of the 5 that didn`t vote would be supportive of the Mary Lowe requete?.
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A further requete to over turn the decision? Now it would seem as if we have lost our marbles.
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