Members of Extinction Rebellion held banners and ‘stop’ signs outside Portland Port entrance this morning, Tuesday 3 November, to draw attention to the proposal for a huge waste incinerator at this site that is set to burn 202,000 tonnes of refuse derived fuel (black bin waste) per year.
Portland resident, Suzi Kirby explained, “This incinerator would belch out monsterous amounts of pollution every day for the next 30 years. It is wrong on so many levels. We need as many people as possible to object on the Dorset Council website or by post before 16 November in order to stop it at the planning application stage. Anyone can submit an objection and the Stop Portland Waste Incinerator Group have put together helpful objection information and links on their website. We need to do this to protect our beautiful landscape, our sites of special scientific interest, our heritage sites, our nature and our health.”
Portland Town Councillor, Giovanna Lewis who attended the protest said, “The main points of objection for me are that the UK already has enough incinerators to meet its demand. Dorset Council has a plan for its waste management that does not currently include this enormous incinerator so the waste will be transported from further away places like London. The transportation and the incinerator emissions will add to air pollution that already kills approximately 36,000 people prematurely per year in the UK.”
Cllr Lewis added, “It will be an unsightly blot on a beautiful coastline of both natural and historic importance. Portland has restricted access with just one road on and off. The stated 40 trucks per day transporting the trash to the port will have to pass through Boot Hill in Weymouth where pollution levels often exceed legal limits without this added traffic. There will be 80 additional truck journeys through Wyke each day where there are three schools that will be directly affected by the traffic and associated pollution. Even the emissions from the incinerator plume will reach these Wyke schools as well as Preston and Weymouth when the winds blow them that direction. This is not just a problem for Portland. Plume emissions, as Powerfuel Portland admit in their application, can not be completely cleaned. Heavy metals and micro particles will still be released, every single day for 30 years.”
Penny Quilter, a local resident with a business in Weymouth and a grand-daughter at school in Wyke said, “Dorset Council have declared a Climate and Ecological Emergency and burning household and commercial waste works directly against this. Electricity generated by waste incineration has significantly higher greenhouse emissions than electricity generated using conventional fossil fuels and is significantly less efficient so it is not a climate friendly alternative. The EU have removed incineration from its list of green/Sustainable energies, the U.K. needs to do the same.”
Portland environmental campaigner and Olympic Sailor, Laura Baldwin spoke of the solutions, “Burning our waste does not fit into the zero emissions world that we must transition to. We need to rapidly switch to a circular economy where there is no waste. Everything manufactured needs to be either compostable or recyclable, built to last and repairable. This is happening already, more and more companies are making the necessary changes. ASDA in Leeds launched an amazing new zero waste isle last week and I believe this will become mainstream in all supermarkets. Locally we have a zero waste shop in Weymouth called SW Coast Refills that is competitively priced and delivers.”
Baldwin continued by saying, “There is renewed interest and support for the Navitus Bay wind farm proposal since Boris Johnson announced his plans to power all homes in the UK with wind energy by 2030. This would be a true green energy solution for Portland Port who could be the base for servicing the turbines and provide docked ships with the shore power generated by the wind.”
She concluded, “Energy from waste is not a low carbon source for providing energy, it is an economically incentivised waste disposal scheme that needs to quickly become outdated if we are to stand a chance of keeping the planet below 1.5 degrees of global overheating and if we are to leave future generations with resources that they can utilise instead of land filled with toxic ash, the byproduct of incineration. Please, please object to this application today. It need only take a few minuets and there is even a template available on the Stop Portland Waste Incinerator website that you can simply download, sign and email to Dorset Council.”
www.stopportlandwasteincinerator.com
Please Note// no traffic was disrupted during this peaceful and legal protest outside Portland Port. Protestors wore masks and stayed a safe distance apart from each other, sterilising hands upon arrival. Protest numbers were kept to a minimum to be covid complient. Dorset Police were in attendance.
PLEASE SUPPORT US FOR JUST £2 A MONTH
