Surrey dumps incineration

Surrey County Council has dumped plans to incinerate rubbish and announced a move to anaerobic digestion and gasification.


The council has also this afternoon (December 15) claimed a UK first by announcing plans for an Eco Park for its waste.

The new park, to be sited in Shepperton, is planned to have an anaerobic digester and gasification plant – at cost of a quarter of the £200m set aside for two planned energy from waste incinerators.

Its scheme would also see an ‘innovation centre’ to look at and develop the new waste technologies and an education centre to promote recycling.

Surrey, which has supported a policy building two incinerators at sites in Capel and Trumps Farm for about two years, made the u-turn today.

After dropping the two planned incinerators the council’s leader, Andrew Povey, said the park would also be half the size plants considered for Capel and Trumps Farm.

Dr Povey said: “Today I will be instructing that the planning applications for incinerators at Capel and Trumps Farm be withdrawn.

“The council’s new approach to waste will concentrate on reducing the amount of waste Surrey produces, encouraging people to reuse things where they can and recycle as much as possible after that.

“The new plans will lead to a reduction in the amount of household waste dealt with every year by 35,000 tonnes, enough to fill the Royal Albert Hall 14 times.

“As a result the county will be making substantial savings in waste disposal costs by 2013.

“Minimising waste alone will result in estimated savings of £3.5 million per year in disposal costs.”

Luke Walsh

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