Manufacturing single use packaging and then burning it is grossly inefficent

Dear Sir

The Christmas switch-on of the incinerator lighting scheme by Veolia celebrates an effective PR campaign to convince us that it creates green energy for the city. However, the new year brings a climate change reality check and exposes the inflexibility of the 35 year waste contract. We warned the council that this saddled us with incineration until 2036, hoovering up the funding for new technologies that will facilitate zero carbon recycling in the near future. It is clear that we need to focus all our efforts on reducing residual waste year on year by recycling, reusing and composting. Instead we have a contract that requires a massive incinerator to be fed.new lights on the incinerator

Yes, the incinerator produces heat and power but manufacturing, for example, single use packaging then burning it is grossly inefficient and a waste of resources. It also now fails on the all important carbon emissions targets whereas new technologies such as anaerobic digestion are increasingly able to offer emission-free recycling.

We have to live with this contract but the urgent breakthrough to an achievable 50% recycling rate is going to be so much more difficult. As climate change kicks in, the incinerator could also fail to meet stricter EU legislation well before 2036.

At a time when the city needs to adopt a Zero Waste Strategy, the council actually needs to find waste to feed the incinerator. It's hard to see how this fits with "Sheffield is my Planet". It is also one of many expensive private sector contracts in waste, road repairs and support services. These contracts have been identified as the main cause of projected inflation-busting council tax rises in the Spring.

Yours Sincerely

Vicki Shaw
Sheffield Green Party