The Alternative»

MBT (mechanical biological treatment) separates out the elements of the residual waste and recovers more recyclables (metals and plastics). For instance the water-based ArrowBio system works better than the dry systems for separating out the recyclables and plastic film etc. (see Jupiter study and other reports in our references). Its AD (anaerobic digestion) system with high water content produces cleaner and better stabilized compost-like output (CLO) for use as a soil improver and a greater proportion of high quality methane gas.
The stated requirement for landfill starts at 41,250 tonnes/year for the inert material. This should reduce significantly over the 10 year period as waste minimization strategies start to work. Some of these materials will be diverted from landfill by new developments in re-usage/recycling and by eliminating the materials that cannot be used.
If there will be insufficient brownfield site capacity for surface usage of the compost-like output, it could be put in landfill without penalty (because it is stabilized by the AD process). As the waste stream is cleaned up by improved recycling/re-use and by elimination or diversion of toxic materials, the CLO will become usable on agricultural land.
N.B. The incinerator will produce 79,750 tonnes/year of eco-toxic bottom ash and hazardous waste fly ash. All the fly ash (11,000 tonnes) will have to go to special landfill, whilst most if not all the bottom ash can go to general landfill.
Cost The cost over 25 years of the incinerator is estimated at around £1 billion (that’s £1,000 million). The cost of the alternative proposal outlined here would be around £200 million. In it, the end of the 10-15 year contract should allow decommissioning of one or more of the plants, reducing the annual costs of dealing with the falling amounts of residual waste.
Zero-waste means having nothing to dispose of to landfill or to incineration. It is the only strategy which moves waste management up the waste hierarchy in line with the vision of the Herts Waste Core Strategy. As well as legislation, zero-waste requires the involvement of the community, business, educational establishments and local government. For instance a research centre linked to a local university monitoring what waste is going to landfill could come up with strategies for how to use those materials and for what needs to be done to capture them for recycling, also to identify what needs to be eliminated from the waste stream.
Zero-waste strategies create jobs, improve sustainability by reducing resource consumption (including energy), reduce carbon emissions, trap carbon rather than releasing it as incinerators do, benefit the local economy (rather than large corporations),and reduce the need for imports.
Zero-waste is currently the aim of more than 135 authorities around the world, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Canberra, 70% of authorities in New Zealand and several cities and towns in Italy and Spain.
Trade names and marks cited here as sources of illustrative figures are the property of their respective owners.