SWERF - PUBLIC COMMENTS

Councillor Kalia, as cabinet member for the environment, said the city council is "serious about recycling". Unfortunately, we are years behind so many local authorities who are truly serious and manage already to exceed Government targets. Mr Kalia also states - "Any facility handling waste will be licensed by the Environment Agency and will be safe." However, agency regulations are based on what is technically feasible rather than what is safe. According to the agency's own records of emissions breaches reported by incinerator operators, 10 incinerators in England breached their pollution limits 553 times in 1999 and 2000. Only one prosecution by the Environment Agency resulted. Swerf is so "innovative" that it is still not functioning as expected at its pilot plant in Australia. It's time the city council acknowledged it has been mis-sold and recycled the failed Swerf contract into a fresh deal with a process that works and pollutes less. Leicester City Council has chosen a route to recycling without incineration. Ms S. J. Heard

Kerbside collection of separated waste now seems to be being pushed for by Derby City Council, judging by his letter. We are pleased to see that the anti-SWERF campaign pressure that the people of Osmaston, Sinfin and Derby have put on the council has made them go for sustainable kerbside collection, even if its only in a pilot area at first. Six thousand people signed the petition against incineration in Derby, and almost half were from Sinfin. Lets keep up the pressure. The kitchen and green garden wastes, paper, card and plastics are what the Brightstar SWERF incinerator needs in order to make profit.

Those items will NOT be recycled or composted, as they should be, but they will be destroyed. Composting does not emit dioxins. The composting scheme in Erewash cannot keep up with the demand for compost, so there is a ready market for the product. Here in Derby, together with other groups, the Waste Minimisation and Community Composting Network is already collecting kitchen and green wastes from the Sinfin area and taking them to the community composter situated on Merrill Way.

That has nothing to do with the city council, but helped put pressure on them to start the kerbside collection. Other local authorities are achieving recycling and composting targets without incinerators. Why should Derby be any different? Dorothy Skrytek, Derby Friends of the Earth Co-ordinator