29 April 2008
The Minister for Transport and Technical Services has welcomed a report into the island’s Solid Waste Strategy commissioned by the Environment Scrutiny Panel.
Last week Deputy Guy de Faye attended a presentation by the Panel, where a report from a technical consultant questioned the fundamental findings of the strategy which was approved by the States in July 2005.
Commenting on the report the Minister said
“Whilst it is disappointing that the Environment Scrutiny Panel appear to want to re-visit arguments that were so convincingly rejected by the States during the Solid Waste Strategy debate in 2005, I welcome this report because it confirms many of the positions held by this Department which have been resisted by Environment Scrutiny Panel until now.
It verifies the urgent need to replace the existing Bellozanne incinerator and it accepts that recycling on the island will be harder and more expensive than in mainland UK – a fact not yet accepted by the Environment Scrutiny Panel. The Solid Waste Strategy has always advocated higher levels of recycling, provided that these are financially and environmentally sustainable, and I hope to confirm a higher target very shortly following our review of the latest Housing Needs Survey information. The specific areas of possible improvements to recycling listed in the report – increased metal, wood and ash recycling - are already very much in line with my Department’s plans.
The Scrutiny report appears to build its case for an alternative strategy around the dubious merits of fortnightly collections of rubbish and recyclables, the separate collection of kitchen scraps for composting which have no current market on the island, and residual waste technologies that depend on storage of large quantities of “sanitised” waste somewhere on the island or export to another jurisdiction.
The report accepts that the conventional incineration based technology proposed by my Department is an acceptable solution, but suggests that some other technologies should also have been considered. Most of the proposed technologies being promoted by the Environment Scrutiny Panel are unproven at an industrial capacity over a minimum two year period, and the report’s author accepts that the ones recommended for further investigation are not even being promoted by their owners within Europe.
The consultant appointed by Scrutiny to write the report was recommended by my own Officers and is respected in the industry so the report’s findings will be taken very seriously indeed. Whilst it is well written and comprehensive, it does contain some inaccuracies and misinterpretations, which are probably the result of some confidentiality issues regarding the tendering process, and will need to be corrected in detail in my Department’s comprehensive response.
Once the Housing Needs Survey information is available, I will confirm the proposed size of the plant. It may have to be significantly larger than that proposed in the Scrutiny report, which appears to have been established based on inaccurate assumptions and a wholly inappropriate assessment of the demographic changes expected on the island.”
Asked about the Scrutiny Panel’s public exhibition on Saturday, the Minister added.
“It is always good to raise awareness of waste issues, but there was nothing in the exhibition that my Department is not fully aware of.
The recycling of tyres and wood have been looked into extensively by our Recycling Officer John Rive, but all required considerable gate fees and transport costs to be viable, rather than being offered free of charge or providing income as is being suggested by the Scrutiny Panel.
The Cardiff Materials Recycling Facility promoted at the exhibition is indeed an impressive achievement, and is probably needed in the South Wales region, but it is underwritten by Government subsidies, landfill taxes and financial penalties and targets that are not relevant in Jersey. Such an investment is considered unnecessary when similar recycling targets are being achieved on the island with source separated collections that do not require a large investment in sorting equipment.
The In-Vessel Composter is one of several companies already being considered by my Department. It is ironic that it is the Environment Scrutiny Panel and the Working Party on Composting who have effectively contrived to delay the progress of the enclosed compost facility that I wished to have up and running by the end of this year, but has now been delayed by an abatement notice demanded by the Constable of St Helier (who is a member of the Environment Scrutiny Panel).
None of the three residual waste technologies promoted at the exhibition – two gasification systems and a mechanical biological treatment system – pass the Environment Scrutiny Panel’s technical adviser’s own test of what is a proven technology. It is a little surprising that the Environment Scrutiny Panel members have chosen to take so little attention of the advice of their own consultant in ensuring that the solutions they promote to the public of Jersey are actually viable.”
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