‘In a week... of rugby colour, I have been absorbed by this tome’

Carolyn Hitt: Pages 24&25

THE Welsh Government has conceded to pressure from the Senedd for a “moratorium on any future large-scale” incinerators” because we’ll not need them “to deal with the residual waste generated in Wales”.

Proposals for new waste incinerators are queuing up in south-east Wales at Uskmouth, St Mellons, Hirwaun, so the government needs to urgently insert the moratorium into planning law.

The document uses the industry spin “energy from waste” plants, rather than say they turn waste materials into ash and huge amounts of CO2.

They emit more than one tonne of CO2 for each tonne of waste. They are very inefficient in reclaiming energy and emit an average 650g C per kWh compared with the UK electricity average of 330g/kWh. This is C from the fossil fuel content. The bio-C more than doubles this.

“Beyond Recycling” propounds a circular economy but with a huge hole to let out the CO2 emissions. As the Committee for Climate Change stressed in 2018, the electricity supply system had to be decarbonised; they recommend a target of 50g/kWh by 2030.

This means not just a moratorium on future incinerators, but also the Welsh Government to require existing incinerators to plan huge cuts in their CO2 emissions. This includes the new Wheelabrator plant on Deesside which past WG policy forced on north Wales councils while giving 25% subsidy to the gate fee.

It also includes Viridor’s incinerator in Cardiff, where they propose to spend several tens of millions on a heat grid, to give a few per cent improvement on the efficiency, with none of the cuts required in CO2 emissions from south-east Wales councils’ waste.

The circular economy is seriously flawed by a gaping hole for waste incinerator CO2.

Max Wallis Friends of the Earth Barry & Vale