Final say on waste shipment plan will be Jersey’s
Wednesday 23rd November 2011, 2:29PM GMT.
JERSEY’S politicians will have the final say over whether Guernsey can ship its non-recyclable waste to its incinerator, its Transport and Technical Services minister has said.
Kevin Lewis was responding to the announcement from the Public Services Department that sending rubbish to Jersey was its preferred option for a new waste strategy, alongside prioritising and improving island recycling.
But Deputy Lewis (pictured) said Jersey’s involvement would have to be discussed by its States – and that would have to wait until Guernsey decided whether to go ahead with the proposal.
‘Our position is that it is technically possible to take on the waste as we do have the capacity,’ he said.
‘However, nothing will be decided without the permission of the States of Jersey.’
- To read Guernsey Press stories in full click here for subscription details. Individual editions are now available online.
Thursday 23 February
- Recycling and export is the way forward for waste
- UK mail will arrive later
- Free motoring supplement
- Herm prepares for summer
- Win a night at the White House
Island Life
All about Guernsey
Ambassador of the Year 2011
History & Heritage
Visitor Information
Guernsey's government
Campaigns
Voice For Victims
Voice for Victims is a campaign aimed at promoting the rights of those affected by child sexual abuse.
This is Guernsey
Guernsey Press
Useful Links
Its going to get really difficult if Jersey turns around and says no, certainly UK and European destination are extremely likely to say no for legal reasons, and now I hear that Jersey even if they say yes, are likely to return the ash to Guernsey, requiring yet further cost etc. Yet there is only really lip service paid to waste prevention. (I.e reduction of material from which waste will be produced….I do not mean recycling, a debatable strategy for Guernsey anyway, due to distant to market and irregularities of commidity markets anyway). Will be interesting to see how this all pans out.
Report abuse
Simon,
The ash is interesting. When Jersey contemplated building their incinerator, they must have taken into account the ash that would be created by the process. They were obviously happy with whatever plan they had for it, or else they would never have put an order in for the plant….. would they? So what’s changed??? How come they are now suddenly not so keen on dealing with the most obvious by-product of the process of the plant that they’ve bought?
When we were being threatened with Suez, we were told that the ash was fine and would be used as a ‘recycled’ material in road building. Jolly handy it was going to be………. apparently!!
Ho hum! Thank goodness we didn’t go for Suez! This all emphasises why we must get a move on with minimising our waste, and a good place to start would be with recyclates collected island-wide (as opposed to per parish) from the doorstep and sorted at the kerbside into the different materials. This would see a huge leap in our levels of recycling and a corresponding drop in the amount of waste requiring disposal.
Report abuse
I would think that Jersey are just getting themselves into position for the forthcoming negotiations
Report abuse
Ray: You’re bang on there I rekon!
And why aren’t we doing the same? When you go into a negotiation, isn’t it more usual to start of with an offer well below what you would be happy to end up with. We seem to be going to Jersey and pretty much telling them that we expect to be taking the ash back! Why?
Both islands have problems, different problems, that need addressing. It is NOT a one sided deal. Both islands should and would benefit from a well crafted contract.
But whatever happens. We HAVE to start getting more determined with our waste reduction attempts. It is not enough to just ask everyone nicely if they can be bothered to go to the extra effort; if it’s not too much trouble; if they’ve got the time; if they are public spirited etc etc to reduce their waste.
About 6 years ago, I asked Dep Flouquet on the radio if the States were implementing legislation that would ensure any new developments would have to provide space for recycling. Unbelievably, they still haven’t even done that and that’s not even an initiative that would have cost them anything..
Report abuse
I travel to Jersey frequently and I’ve been asking lots of Jersey people what they think of taking our waste. So far, and unscientifically, the response is unanimously that they already have their incinerator, for good or bad, and they might as well make some more money and more electricity from it.
Report abuse
Roquaine: I don’t travel so much to Jersey but I did go and stay with someone earlier this year there and their attitude was exactly as you describe below too. Now that they have their incinerator, it needs to pay its way and make a contribution into their deficit.
However I have come across a few Deputies over the last few days who are still sucking in air through their teeth at the mention of exporting our residual waste to Jersey. On quizzing them, they seem to be caught up in an involuntary reaction that dealing with Jersey will be just too difficult. I’m sure that you and I could sort it out with Jersey over a friendly cup of tea…….. we badly need more people with a ‘can-do’ attitude! If we go to Jersey expecting it to be difficult, chances are it will be. We need to go in there seeing how this can be a positive benefit for both islands, and to sell it as such.
Report abuse
Give each household a compost bin, or at least provide them at really cheap prices. In the UK a huge black plastic bin (made from recycled material) can be delivered to your doorstep for peanuts, sometimes less than £5.
A huge amount is thrown in the bin that is vegetable soils, a compost bin takes little to no space and only needs tending once a year to remove what is ready for the garden the worms do the rest if the bin is on earth. Oh and it does not smell.
It is good to remind about the yearly cost of Suez and what was not included so the public are not presented with it costs this now and forget well actually it was going to cost you more before etc.
Report abuse
The States have a subsidised scheme where you can buy compost bins from garden centres for £10.
Report abuse
Rosie makes a really good point about the ash – a point the protesters never stopped making in the run up to Suez.
It is important to remember in all of this, when making comparisons, that Suez was going to cost in the order of £10m a year and that we would still have had the ash to deal with above and beyond that.
It doesn’t take a genius to work out the the most obvious solution to the problem is not to create it in the first place. Before anyone jumps on me, I am not saying that we can stop producing waste overnight, but we can certainly implement a rigorous minimisation strategy and stop mixing ‘waste’ together. Waste is generally created when otherwise useful things are mixed together.
The cheapest option of the 4 ‘finalists’ was to reduce waste as much as possible and then to landfill the remaining largely inert residue. With a will it would be possible to get that residue down to about 10,000 tonnes. In this scenario Mont Cue would last until about 2050. A forty year strategy. I would imagine that global pressures in 40 years time would be such that the ‘throwaway’ society would have come to an end.
Report abuse
Those global pressures you mention will probably see us down at Mont Cuet pulling all those valuable materials that we are currently merrily dumping, back out again! Landfill mining is already happening in some areas!
Of course it would be much more intelligent tho’ to not be dumping reusable materials in there in the first place.
Report abuse
That could be Stan Brouard’s next big venture
There must be hundreds of thousands worth of recoverable materials at Bordeaux quarry and under the Castel School playing fields
Report abuse
or to put them in the ground in such a way as it is easy to take them out again
Report abuse
Have often thought exactly the same Simon. However in order to do that, we need our waste to be pre sorted and that is something that we really should be cracking on with PDQ. IN fact if we were pre-sorting, there wouldn’t be much going down there anyway.
Trials have shown that the most effective method of collecting residual waste and recyclates is through a system called Kerbside Sorted Collections. It involves the household putting all their DRY recyclates into one container (you might divide that into 2: 1 for paper & cardboard, and the other for all other recyclates.) This is then picked up from the doorstep and sorted at the kerbside into the different materials. Food waste has to also be picked up separately to be turned into compost in an IVC.
This would so radically reduce the amount of residual waste going to M.C. that it would be much easier to sort it into different materials, if indeed it was noticed that there was still enough of a material that could be separated out. Chances are there wouldn’t be!
Report abuse