A community environmental organisation has berated Geelong council for its updated stance on energy from waste.
Members of No Waste Incinerators in Lara & Greater Geelong Incorporated said they were “profoundly disappointed” the council’s recent report on energy from waste, tabled at its December council meeting, seemed to pave the way for “waste cooking technologies” such as gasification and pyrolysis.
In a statement this week, Greater Geelong mayor Stretch Kontelj confirmed the council’s willingness to explore such technologies in what he called a “responsible and forward-thinking approach”.
“We support the Victorian government’s direction toward a circular economy and recognise that energy from waste technologies – including gasification, pyrolysis, and biodigestion – will play a role in future waste operations,” he said.
“We have listened to community concerns, and at this stage we don’t support an incineration energy from waste facility within Greater Geelong.”
No Waste Incinerators secretary and science adviser Charles Street said such an approach was “completely wrong”.
“Had council consulted with us, we would have corrected numerous mistakes” he said.
“Council appears to reject waste incineration, whilst apparently endorsing other ‘thermal treatment’ technologies such as waste gasification, waste pyrolysis, and similar.
“The harms to public health, community amenity, and environment of all these ‘waste cooking’ technologies are not significantly different.
“The claim that waste incineration, gasification, pyrolysis, etc is part of a circular economy concept is false…these thermal treatments destroy the waste resource forever.”
Councillor Elise Wilkinson noted the report addressed “the Victorian state government’s policy direction prohibiting new landfills and encouraging energy from waste as part of a circular economy”.
Mr Street said the “oft-heard claim that we are running out of landfill” was false.
“Our evidence suggests that there are currently 193 quarries in Victoria, all of which will eventually expire and become prime candidates for new landfill sites,” he said.
“If we are running out of landfills, could it be that the state government is so handcuffed to waste incineration that they must block off all the remaining landfill options?”
“The claim that waste incineration, pyrolysis, gasification produces less greenhouse gas emissions than modern landfills is false. Old landfills emit methane…whereas modern landfills capture the methane and use it for fuel and other purposes.
“Both landfill and burning…of garbage are unacceptable to our incorporated association. Instead, we promote the Triple R strategy, that is reducing consumption, re-using materials, and recycling.”
