Have your say on £1bn incinerator (From Hereford Times)

That's an awful lot of money for something that may tick a lot of governmental tick boxes.
And there lies one of the problems in our zest to go green.Hurtling headlong into something that may turn out to be an expensive dog without thinking it through carefully.
They say that this could cost us a billion. That means, eventually it will and more. Can we really afford this at a time when we in Hereford are on our knees?
I ain't got a clue but I do know this for a certainty. Everything that our Council touch turns into a Bag of Rats.
Let's not do it yet. Lets revisit the issue in a few years when perhaps we are in a healthier state.

It is quite wrong to say that waste 'would otherwise go to landfill'. Councils who have rejected incinerators now use outside companies who offer much cheaper greener alternatives. For example the 40% of waste which is mixed plastics, metal, card, paper and glass (the co-mingled bin) actually PAYS councils an average of £26 per tonne. If they collected food waste that is only £41 to process. All far cheaper than the around £130 pt. for the incinerator. Check the official figures for waste disposal on the Government site: http://www.wrap.org.
uk/sites/files/wrap/
Gate%20Fees%20Report
%202012.pdf

If you used these cheaper methods then you wouldn't have to pay the landfill fines mentioned but as importantly you wouldn't have to pay the carbon and incineration taxes which are under EU and National discussion and almost certain in the next 3-5 years. The council should urgently review their decision, consider these alternatives and avoid the vast costs and risks of an unnecessarily 25-30 incinerator PFI contract.

Sounds like a lot of money to get rid of waste - more needs to be done to get it recycled. We recycle our household waste, but the council sends all its litter bin waste to landfill and council tax payers pick up the bill.

The tax is charged by weight and there are two rates. Inert or inactive waste is subject to the lower rate. The present rates are £64 a tonne and £2.50 a tonne for the lower rate. This is going to rise to £80 a tonne by 2014.

Being discussed belmontvoice.co.uk