SIR,
Does Wales wish to become the rubbish dump of the UK?
A consortium of local authorities (Prosiect Gwyrdd), including Monmouthshire, has short listed four incineration companies to provide a solution to residual waste.
Residual waste includes what is left over after bio degradable material (garden and food waste) and some recyclables (glass, paper cans etc) have been removed.
Two of the companies, Viridor and Covanta, already are in the advanced planning stages of putting incineration plants in Cardiff Bay and Merthyr Tydfil.
These plants in combination, will need one million tonnes of waste every year for the next 15 to 25 years to work efficiently.
If the Welsh Assembly Government recycling target of 70 per cent is met, this represents three times the total residual waste generated in the whole of Wales.
This is the reason for the question at the head of this letter.
If it makes money does it matter?
It does because it damages the health of the community in the locality.
It is also an inefficient means of producing heat/ electricity and will almost certainly be outlawed by European law within ten years.
The Welsh Assembly Government supports this policy, which is at odds with both the Conservative's green deal and the Plaid Cymru policy, so is it the Welsh Labour Party pushing this through?
I don't wish to oppose investment and regeneration in the valleys, but these schemes are at the expense of public health.
It is a price not worth paying.
If you agree, lobby your county council representative, assembly member, and member of parliament to force the Assembly Government to change its policy and pursue cleaner, more efficient methods of avoiding landfill charges.
(Name and address supplied)