South Tyneside

Councillor's rubbish idea

South Tyneside Friends of the Earth has branded a senior South Tyneside councillor "irresponsible" over his backing for waste incineration in the area.

At the East Shields Community Area Forum meeting on Thursday 5th July, Progressive Party leader Councillor Jim Capstick gave his full support for an incineration process known as "Energy from Waste with combined heat and power", which South Tyneside Council's Draft Waste Management Strategy admits "will generate additional hazardous waste".

The incineration option suggested would not only incinerate South Tyneside's waste but also that of Sunderland and Gateshead.

Spokesperson Bryan Atkinson said:

"A typical industrial scale incinerator can belch out the equivalent of 300 wheelie bins of exhaust gases every single second. They emit heavy metals and killer chemicals known as dioxins, which are known to cause breast and testicular cancers.

"Experience tells us that incinerators are almost always built next to the most disadvantaged communities and their emissions will precipitate a new crisis in public health.

"Instead of crying out for incinerators, our politicians should be introducing a sensible framework of regulation that reduces the amount of waste produced in the first place.

"Councillor Capstick's crusade to bring back the incinerators is bad news. There is no such thing as a safe level of dioxin pollution."

Notes

1. The Council's Draft Waste Management Strategy confirms that Energy from Waste with combined heat and power "will generate additional hazardous waste" and fails to compare "particularly well in terms of cost-effectiveness or resource efficiency". 

2. South Tyneside FOE online

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