Archive for the ‘The Wrong Technology’ Category
Reasons Why It’s The Wrong Technology
Posted by James in The Wrong Technology on June 10th, 2009
We strongly agree with the principle that we all need to do something to reduce the amount of rubbish that goes to landfill but the solution proposed by Cyclamax is not the only way we can tackle this problem, and certainly not the best solution.
Cyclamax’s approach has a small element of recycling (only 17%-20% of the waste they accept will be recycled) and a large gasification/incineration plant (for the remaining 80% + of the industrial waste)
The technology proposed by Cyclamax is untested – only 2 plants with the same technology exist (although not owned by Cyclamax): one is in Iceland (much more sparsely populated than Chesterfield!) which has only been operational since 2005, and the other is in Dumfries (a smaller scale plant, in a more rural location that is still to become operational) – so there are no long term/real life health statistics from either of these cases.
Cyclamax have never operated a gasification plant before. They were only established in 2006 and this was the first planning application that we are aware of to be submitted.
Safer and greener technologies are available, including composting, anaerobic digestion and plasma gasification which burns waste at a higher temperature, with less emissions and no ash.
We also need to tackle the source of the problem – the basic principles of REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE should apply as much to businesses as it does to the public – manufacturers need to be encouraged/forced to produce less non-recyclable waste and use less packaging. Businesses need to take more responsibility for their waste, just as householders have had to do, and they need to be encouraged to segregate and recycle their waste as much as possible. Other countries and cities around the world are either working towards and in some cases have already achieved a ZERO WASTE status; while this may seem too ambitious for this country there is so much more we could be doing to catch up.
However, even if a safer/greener technology was proposed we still strongly believe that Dunston Road is the wrong site for a waste management facility of this scale.
Below is a link to the Wrong Site Page of our website
The Wrong Technology
Posted by admin in The Wrong Technology on January 15th, 2009
Here we list the reasons why we feel this is the wrong technology