Greenpeace weighs in on waste plant plan
Calls are growing for the company behind a plan to build a $350 million waste to energy plant in South Canterbury to be more upfront with information to the public.
‘‘The people of Waimate and beyond have a right to all the information to be able to make informed decisions, feedback and submissions about what is happening in their community,’’ Greenpeace plastics campaigner Juressa Lee said.
‘‘If the claim is that this project is using technology other than what is being used in plants currently around the world, we need to see what that is, how it is different and the evidence that it does what they say it does.’’
Greenpeace’s comments follow similar concerns raised by Paula Ryan, spokesperson for a 32-member group, W2E Incinerator Opposition Waimate.
Earlier this week The Timaru Herald asked South Island Resource Recovery Ltd (SIRRL) what the feeder fuel would be, where the plant would be located, what the technology would be and if it was Chinese and when they would apply for consents.
SIRRL director Paul Taylor replied that they were ‘‘looking forward to holding further information sessions in the region once we’ve gone through the necessary steps in the resource consent process, and then we can share this with the community’’.
He said they had contacted opponents to their proposal via social media to discuss issues with them in person, but they had chosen not to respond.
‘‘Some of the information they are sharing is not the latest, particularly in the area of new technology,’’ Taylor said.
Lee said Greenpeace Aotearoa supported Waimate locals and other concerned individuals and groups in their demand for information.
‘‘We know waste to energy incineration produces climate impacting greenhouse gases, persistent pollutants that can bioaccumulate in land and in marine food chains and can inflict air and ash pollution impacts on local communities.’’
She said the bulk of waste to be incinerated was plastic, produced from fossil carbon reserves, primarily oil, and burning them was little different from burning fossil fuels.
‘‘Burning enables poorly designed products to continue being produced, wasting valuable resources that would be better reused. It is not ‘renewable’ energy,’’ Lee said..
‘‘The majority of the heat and therefore energy for electricity generation or heating is coming from the non-recycled plastics in the waste, along with other combustibles that could be separated and recycled, such as paper, card, wood and textiles.’’
Lee said incinerators were expensive and a disincentive to recycling waste.
‘‘From what we see in Europe, it can even lead to bizarre contracts where waste needs to be imported to keep supplying the incinerator, or we will be ‘looking’ for waste to burn to meet the demand, again, undermining efforts to reduce waste.’’
Lee said SIRRL was dangling a few jobs to remote, rural regions as a carrot attached to a string that ‘‘has a very high price’’.
Under the proposal, waste would be brought from around the South Island to Waimate.
The company has stated it would apply for resource consent from the Waimate District Council and Environment Canterbury by the end of the year.
A similar plan on the West Coast, involving SIRRL’s shareholders, Renew NZ Ltd and Chinese company China Tianying Ltd (CNTY), SIRRL’s major shareholder, was abandoned two years ago after failing to get public support.
Company accused of dangling a few jobs as a carrot attached to a string that ‘‘has a very high price’’.