Vocal Voices

That is how much the government has guaranteed to pay eight schemes - five wind farms and three biomass (1 new, 2 conversions). It is on top of the £billions currently given as subsidies. The hand-outs have been awarded because the schemes will not be profitable unless the market price sky-rockets. Under normal business rules if something will not make a profit, or is inefficient, it is either not started or is closed down.

The only reason for building these schemes is an attempt to reduce the UK's carbon footprint. However, wind farms are already known to be useless for providing base-load, and Drax, one of the biomass conversions, already imports 7.5 million tonnes of biomass fuel from the USA and Canada because the UK cannot meet its needs.

My incredulity dissipation has gone into overdrive......

Why don't we incinerate our rubbish, as other places do?

Recycling is not perfect, and never will be, but we are doing a fairly good job of filtering a lot out before heading for the landfill site, so why not burn the rest to produce energy/heating?

We have the technology to remove particulate matter from incinerator fumes and also to separate out the fumes (sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide) into usable products for manufacturing processes. The ash deposits can be graded for things such as road surfaces and building (breeze type) blocks.

Workingman wrote:Why don't we incinerate our rubbish, as other places do?

Real risk of carcinogens.

Workingman wrote:Recycling is not perfect, and never will be, but we are doing a fairly good job of filtering a lot out before heading for the landfill site, so why not burn the rest to produce energy/heating?

Given adequate safequards, why not. New York now has two huge power stations running day and night on rubbish. However, consider that even with the best will in the world, a whole load of carcinogens will go up in smoke.

Workingman wrote:We have the technology to remove particulate matter from incinerator fumes and also to separate out the fumes (sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide) into usable products for manufacturing processes. The ash deposits can be graded for things such as road surfaces and building (breeze type) blocks.

Answer in short. Money. Oh but we're already paying billions for Nuclear which has no hope of changing the power landscape much at all. A lack of vision I'd say.

Also we have to consider that the waste produced by these incinerators is categorised as "mildly hazardous". Which means very expensive procedures to remove it and only so many places to put it in the UK. Nowhere near a water table etc....

It is a very good idea and would radically help our emissions profile. However it won't happen. Too much investment and to much taken away from the profits of the utilities....

Sad but true....

How about recycling tyres by chopping them up and putting them into Tarmac. The US does it, Australia does it. It significantly increases the wear life or roads whilst significantly reducing the noise....

Another great idea sitting in the in tray...

All of the things that we do are risky; the exhaust fumes from gas and coal plants are "mildly hazardous", sending God knows what to landfill is often proved to be hazardous to the local water table and produces methane in large volumes.

However, what we are suggesting, Suff; using local incineration and pebbling tyres etc. are all technologically feasible if the will was there. Investing the £16.5 billion on those rather than the duff windmills and biomass could make the UK a global leader in waste management and second use..

I was watching a piece about the World Cup the other day and a short excerpt was about the mountain of waste left after a match, and it was a mountain, waiting to be removed. It many terms it was valuable, but it was all destined for the tip - the easiest and cheapest 'solution', apparently.

We need a new mind set.

Workingman wrote:We need a new mind set.

We need new politicians. One's who understand the problem and are business savvy in the way to deal with it.

Can't see that happening any time soon.