21 February 2020
Surrey Greens have condemned the county’s new Waste Plan to 2033 which includes 18 potential extra locations for incinerators on industrial estates across the county. Surrey County Council is currently consulting on the final version of the plan (until February 23rd).
“The last time we saw this plan there were nine incinerators”, said Councillor Jonathan Essex. “The plan is now even more pro-incineration, with the potential for burning at waste at a further 18 locations in industrial estates across the county”.
A Planning Inspector considered the draft plan last year – the County Council is now consulting on the changes it made following the public examination. These mainly focus on the new areas of search which have been identified for being potentially suitable for a “small scale thermal treatment facility”.
“These are incinerators by any other name. Once built they will need feeding with waste which could have been reused and recycled. Instead we need to scale up reuse and high quality recycling, which will create local jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions", said Councillor Essex.
The plan also continues to over-estimate the amount of waste that will be created in future. Surrey residents produced less household waste last year than the 2017 figures used in the plan. In 2018/19 Surrey recycled and reused just over 55% of waste – making it the second best performing local authority in England. The Plan has a higher target for recycling of 75%, but reducing what we throw away is crucial. Surrey residents still threw away an average 189 kg of waste per household each year, which should be reduced as people become less wasteful and continue to recycle more.
“We can do much better than this – waste levels could fall further and reuse and recycling should be the main focus of the plan for Surrey. Incineration should be ruled out, not expanded in future”, said Cllr Essex.
Notes
The full response can be read here.
The 18 areas identified as having potential for a thermal treatment facility (amongst other waste management methods) are:
The consultation can be found here:
The current performance of Surrey’s authorities in terms of amount of waste recycled and thrown away is as follows:
|
Waste collection authorities (top 5 and Surrey districts and boroughs) |
|||||
|
|
Household waste/year |
Rank (least thrown away = 1) |
|||
|
|
Total (kg) |
Recycled (%) |
Residual (not recycled) (kg) |
||
|
Ealing LB |
237.8 |
52.6% |
112.7 |
1 |
|
|
Stroud District Council |
285.6 |
60.2% |
113.7 |
2 |
|
|
Colchester Borough Council |
284.7 |
58.6% |
117.9 |
3 |
|
|
East Devon District Council |
298.7 |
59.1% |
122.2 |
4 |
|
|
Vale of White Horse District Council |
329.6 |
62.5% |
123.6 |
5 |
|
|
Surrey Heath Borough Council |
335.4 |
61.9% |
127.8 |
6 |
|
|
Guildford Borough Council |
332.9 |
57.7% |
140.8 |
13 |
|
|
Woking Borough Council |
351.7 |
57.2% |
150.5 |
22 |
|
|
Tandridge District Council |
368.5 |
58.1% |
154.4 |
25 |
|
|
Waverley Borough Council |
354.6 |
54.6% |
161.0 |
35 |
|
|
Reigate and Banstead Borough Council |
349.8 |
53.8% |
161.6 |
36 |
|
|
Epsom and Ewell Borough Council |
364.4 |
54.9% |
164.3 |
39 |
|
|
Runnymede Borough Council |
301.2 |
42.0% |
174.7 |
56 |
|
|
Mole Valley District Council |
378.9 |
52.9% |
178.5 |
64 |
|
|
Spelthorne Borough Council |
335.3 |
43.9% |
188.1 |
81 |
|
|
Elmbridge Borough Council |
386.5 |
51.0% |
189.4 |
83 |
|
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|
|
|
|
|
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|
Waste Disposal Authorities (top 2) |
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|
|
|
|
Household waste/year |
Rank (least thrown away = 1) |
|||
|
|
Total (kg) |
Recycled (%) |
Residual (kg, (not recycled) |
||
|
Oxfordshire County Council |
407.7 |
58.2% |
170.4 |
1 |
|
|
Surrey County Council (as a whole) |
423.3 |
55.3% |
189.2 |
2 |
|
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