Anger at proposed waste incinerator at Canford, Bournemouth

Photo of the Pink Rebels is courtesy of XR Wimborne

Local residents joined Extinction Rebellion (XR) Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) and XR Wimborne, who once again gathered outside Bournemouth’s Civic Centre to demonstrate against the building of waste incinerators in the area. They are concerned about the detrimental effect of the proposed incinerators on local residents’ health, the local environment and increased global warming.

Global Warming

Rick Larcombe, a resident from Canford, in explaining why they have again demonstrated outside the Civic Centre, quoted Dr Ian Williams, Environmental Science Professor from the University of Southampton, who has said:

“The current practice of the burning of waste for energy and building more and more incinerators for this purpose, is at odds with our desire to reduce greenhouse gas emissions” It is an “insane situation” and that “increasing its use is disastrous for our climate.”

Steve Harper from XR BCP said this is supported by a BBC investigation that reported:

“Burning household rubbish in incinerators to generate electricity is now the most polluting form of power generation in the UK. Nearly half of the rubbish produced in UK homes, which includes plastic, is being incinerated”.

The BBC investigation has found that the environmental impact of waste incineration is vast. Energy produced from waste is five times more polluting than the average UK unit of electricity. Its data also shows that plastic waste — being sent to incinerators in increasingly large numbers — produces 175 times more CO₂ when burned compared to being buried in landfill. Professor Keith Bell from the Government’s Climate Change Committee says of the BBC’s findings:

“If the current government is serious about clean power by 2030, then we cannot allow ourselves to be locked into just burning waste”.

The protesters are requesting that BCP council heed these findings, saying we don’t need the proposed Parley, Portland, or the Canford Heath incinerators, for reasons of health, recyclability, environment, and climate. They say our local government should emulate Scotland and Wales who have already banned new incinerator plants because of environmental concerns.

Courtesy of XR-BCP

Circular Economy

The protestors also cite Shlomo Dowen, from the UK Without Incineration Network. Mr Dowen has stated

“There are already far too many waste incinerators across the UK, meaning that most of what is burned is material that could and should have been recycled or composted”. He goes on to say,

“For every tonne of plastic that is incinerated, more than two tonnes of carbon dioxide are being released. This is because the carbon in plastic combines with oxygen in the air, making incineration a significant source of greenhouse gases”.

Mr Dowen further states that abandoning these schemes would free up funds to invest in the top tiers of the waste hierarchy, including the creation of many new jobs in the repair, reuse, redesign and recycling sectors.

Local Environment

Courtesy of XR-BCP

From a local environment perspective, the protesters point out that Canford, Parley and Portland (three sites where incinerators are planned) are all internationally protected wildlife sites.

Dorset’s lowland heath is the largest surviving lowland heath in Europe, but it is under pressure, fragmented, and needs protecting. Canford Heath is Dorset’s largest lowland heath, and much of it is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), and is also part of the Dorset Heathlands Special Protection Area.It is home to many rare species, including the smooth snake, sand lizard and Dartford warbler. The proposed Parley incinerator is adjacent to a Dorset Heathland Special Protection Area, and an international Ramsar site. 

Both of these are ecologically sensitive areas and would be subject to increased pollution through acid and nitrogen deposition. The artificial enrichment of the soil at these sites would lead to them becoming unsuitable for the plants of lowland heaths. As such the wildlife that relies on the heathland plants would diminish as the plants do. 

Portland is a central part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site and is important for its geology and landforms. The coastline and disused quarries are designated as SSSI’s. Sea and migratory birds occupy the cliffs in different seasons. Rare visitors to the surrounding seas include dolphins, seals and basking sharks. Chesil Beach is one of only two sites in Britain where the scaly cricket can be found; unlike any other cricket it is wingless and does not sing or hop.

Daniel Glennon, Customer Service Trainer from XR BCP said

“Building these incinerators would push us backwards in our efforts to reduce the worst impacts of climate change and will damage critically sensitive, internationally recognised and designated, wildlife areas …

“Instead of investing in this discredited, dirty, and polluting practice we should be prioritising reducing waste at source, recycling, and composting.

“Climate, health, and the environment matter, it should matter to our councillors as well!”.

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