Another Incinerator Will be Harmful to our District, say Wyre Forest Libdems

A planning application has been submitted to Worcestershire County Council for an incinerator and plastic shredding facility at land at the back of the Liberty Aluminium Foundry on the Stourport Road . This is the site where there were serious fires when the site was previously a Waste Recycling Facility under different ownership. There are a number of reasons for the local community to oppose this application;

• Incineration releases tonnes of carbon dioxide into the air in exchange for very little energy . We need to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we are emitting not create more.
• Incineration produces pollutants that are harmful to human health
• There is a risk of fire from the stored waste. Waste recycling plants have been the location of several major fires around the UK. The serious fires at Lawrence Recycling in 2012 and 2013 are not unusual.
• The proposed site borders the canal and is close to the River Stour. Building and operating an incinerator here has risks for both the quality of water in the canal and river and local wildlife
• The incinerator will have a 50 metre stack , so it will have an impact on the local landscape
• The proposed site is close to Wilden Marsh, a site of Special Scientific Interest and is a potential risk to local biodiversity

Wilden Marsh , with a total area of 37.50 hectares and occupying about 50% of the River Stour floodplain/corridor between Kidderminster and Stourport, Wilden Marsh Nature Reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest forms the largest continuous extent of marshland in Worcestershire. Worcestershire Wildlife Trust owns 14.10 hectares and has a management agreement on a further 23.60 hectares of land that remains in private ownership.

The dangers to both health and the environment from incinerators burning waste have been well known for years . We already have a large incinerator at Hartlebury that was built to deal with the domestic waste of Worcestershire & Herefordshire and, since last year, can also take commercial waste. The proposed Incinerator is only a very short distance from Wyre Forest Crematorium . We do not need another Incinerator in our community , emitting more greenhouse gases and pollutants . The waste that will be burnt in the proposed incinerator is waste that will be brought into Kidderminster in lorries from various locations in the West Midlands. Why should we be dealing with waste from outside our area?

The proposed plastic shredding facility will bring waste plastic to the site, shred it and convert it into pellets. These pellets will then be transported elsewhere to be made into new plastic items. Converting plastic waste into new plastic items is not a solution to the global plastic problem.

For more information you can read the full application on Worcestershire County Council's website - planning application number 20/000034/CM . You can object to this proposal by writing to the County Council , Directorate of Economy and Infrastructure, Worcestershire County Council, County Hall, Spetchley Road, Worcester, WR5 2NP or by submitting your objections online or by email. The deadline for sending in objections to WCC is THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29TH