Community organisation No Waste Incinerators in Lara & Greater Geelong Incorporated has voiced disappointment at the City of Greater Geelong’s recent report on waste management.
Tabled at the council’s December meeting, the report stated the City “does not currently support an incineration Energy from Waste facility”, but would request a “further report not later than December 2026 that further explores Energy from Waste facilities”.
The report, and councillors at the December meeting, drew a clear distinction between incineration and other energy from waste technologies such as gasification, pyrolysis and bio-digestion.
No Waste Incinerators secretary and science advisor Charles Street, a leading voice in opposition to the proposed Lara incinerator, referred to the report as “a complete about-face”.
“We’re really dark on the council for having prepared a secret report…(where) the council has declared its rejection of waste incineration but effectively approved waste gasification and waste pyrolysis,” he said.
“What prompted them to do this? They say they’re being guided by the state government – they’ve been told what to do…they haven’t been asking many questions, because they don’t know what questions to ask.
“The least we would have expected is that it would have been released to the public for discussion.”
The City’s executive director of city infrastructure Amanda Locke denied the council had changed its position.
“Our role is to operate within the Victorian Government’s legislation on energy from waste, and the report presented to council in December acknowledges that framework,” she said.
“What we’ve done is formally restate council’s position: we do not support the development of incineration‑based energy from waste facilities in Greater Geelong.
“The report does not propose any current changes to our policies or how we operate, so there’s no impact on residents or stakeholders that requires consultation.”
Mr Street said there was no effective difference between incineration and other burning techniques like gasification and pyrolysis.
“You can’t say ‘we’re against waste incineration but we will allow waste gasification or pyrolysis’; they’re the same,” he said.
“They still have emissions to air, they still have ash, they still emit greenhouse gases. In terms of environmental and health impacts, we don’t see any difference.”
