Opposing a proposed Incinerator by South Island Resource Recovery Ltd
Opposing a proposed Incinerator by South Island Resource Recovery Ltd
The issue
We are calling on you to help stop a vast, toxic, Chinese-built and operated Rubbish Incinerator being constructed in the Waimate district.
In September 2022, South Island Resource Recovery Limited (SIRRL) applied to the Waimate District Council and ECan for various resource consents to build and operate a rubbish-burning incinerator in Glenavy, Waimate. Both councils requested the Environment Minister call in the application. After receiving advice from the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), Minister Parker called in the application and referred it to the Environment Court. This now means that the local and regional councils can, and we think, should submit against the application.
Some of what SIRRL are proposing:
1. The plant will burn 365,000 tonnes of waste annually, producing 100,000 tonnes of residue ash per year. Twenty per cent of the ash will be extremely toxic fly ash. This fly ash will be vitrified into a glass-like slag with a plasma furnace, supposedly encasing the poisonous material. Bizarrely, SIRRL proposes that this slag be crushed and used as roading and construction material. The remaining 80,000 tonnes of unprocessed bottom ash will be landfilled, which is illegal in numerous European countries due to its toxicity.
2. SIRRL claims emissions will be measured in real-time. However, the worst toxins, dioxins, furans, and heavy metals, will only be sample gathered and tested every 3 -12 months. This means that dangerous levels of these toxins could be released and go unnoticed for up to 12 months. Emissions are monitored only during steady state operation, meaning that for 48-hour periods during start-up and shut-down procedures, when emissions are at their worst, monitoring is not performed.
3. The plant will store more than 45,000 tonnes of waste on-site and up to 100,000 litres of diesel at any time. One incorrectly disposed lithium-ion battery, like that contained within vaping devices, could ignite a devastating fire.
4. The plant will use 2.5 million litres of fresh water daily! Along with the auxiliary diesel usage and additives required to mitigate emissions that wouldn't otherwise exist, is this resource recovery?
5. Diesel will be required to supplement any electricity generation and plant operation, including the plasma furnace. Despite SIRRL's claims, electricity generated from the burning of plastic and diesel is not renewable or efficient.
6. The proposal relies on 136 heavy truck and trailer movements per day to bring waste to the site; this figure excludes ash transportation to landfill. All these extra heavy vehicles on poor-quality roads with a distinct lack of passing lanes to accommodate it.
7. The construction of the plant and the storage of waste and hazardous materials required to process it, is proposed within a flood zone.
Following the lodgement of SIRRL's resource consent application, a group of Waimate Doctors labelled the proposed waste-to-energy plant a "waste-to-poisons plant", stating that issues of risk to health have not been fully recognised.
Let's show SIRRL and its Chinese shareholder, China Tianying (CNTY), that Waimate does not want its toxic, polluting rubbish incinerator in Waimate, or anywhere else for that matter!
2,115
The issue
We are calling on you to help stop a vast, toxic, Chinese-built and operated Rubbish Incinerator being constructed in the Waimate district.
In September 2022, South Island Resource Recovery Limited (SIRRL) applied to the Waimate District Council and ECan for various resource consents to build and operate a rubbish-burning incinerator in Glenavy, Waimate. Both councils requested the Environment Minister call in the application. After receiving advice from the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), Minister Parker called in the application and referred it to the Environment Court. This now means that the local and regional councils can, and we think, should submit against the application.
Some of what SIRRL are proposing:
1. The plant will burn 365,000 tonnes of waste annually, producing 100,000 tonnes of residue ash per year. Twenty per cent of the ash will be extremely toxic fly ash. This fly ash will be vitrified into a glass-like slag with a plasma furnace, supposedly encasing the poisonous material. Bizarrely, SIRRL proposes that this slag be crushed and used as roading and construction material. The remaining 80,000 tonnes of unprocessed bottom ash will be landfilled, which is illegal in numerous European countries due to its toxicity.
2. SIRRL claims emissions will be measured in real-time. However, the worst toxins, dioxins, furans, and heavy metals, will only be sample gathered and tested every 3 -12 months. This means that dangerous levels of these toxins could be released and go unnoticed for up to 12 months. Emissions are monitored only during steady state operation, meaning that for 48-hour periods during start-up and shut-down procedures, when emissions are at their worst, monitoring is not performed.
3. The plant will store more than 45,000 tonnes of waste on-site and up to 100,000 litres of diesel at any time. One incorrectly disposed lithium-ion battery, like that contained within vaping devices, could ignite a devastating fire.
4. The plant will use 2.5 million litres of fresh water daily! Along with the auxiliary diesel usage and additives required to mitigate emissions that wouldn't otherwise exist, is this resource recovery?
5. Diesel will be required to supplement any electricity generation and plant operation, including the plasma furnace. Despite SIRRL's claims, electricity generated from the burning of plastic and diesel is not renewable or efficient.
6. The proposal relies on 136 heavy truck and trailer movements per day to bring waste to the site; this figure excludes ash transportation to landfill. All these extra heavy vehicles on poor-quality roads with a distinct lack of passing lanes to accommodate it.
7. The construction of the plant and the storage of waste and hazardous materials required to process it, is proposed within a flood zone.
Following the lodgement of SIRRL's resource consent application, a group of Waimate Doctors labelled the proposed waste-to-energy plant a "waste-to-poisons plant", stating that issues of risk to health have not been fully recognised.
Let's show SIRRL and its Chinese shareholder, China Tianying (CNTY), that Waimate does not want its toxic, polluting rubbish incinerator in Waimate, or anywhere else for that matter!
2,115
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Petition created on 25 September 2022