Andy D'Agorne

Press release issued 14/2/07: Published in The Press 17/02/07

NEWS RELEASE - YORK GREEN PARTY

Incineration 'Greenwash' attempt fails


MEPs yesterday voted to reject attempts to rebrand waste incineration as an
environmentally friendly alternative to landfill. As Green Party Councillor
Andy D'Agorne notes, this will have implications all over the continent -
including the City of York's own waste strategy.

The City of York Council is in partnership with other councils of North
Yorkshire to devise a plan for the county's waste over the next twenty
years. Whilst York Councillors ruled out an incinerator in York, the option
of sending York's waste to an incinerator elsewhere in the county is very
much on the table. Yesterday's vote on the EU Waste Framework Directive has
brought us one step closer to an enlightened, low-carbon waste strategy for
the twenty-first century, says Green Party Councillor Andy D'Agorne -

"Instead of finding convenient short-term ways of dealing with the problem,
Euro-MPs have agreed with the Green Party line that we must all stop
producing so much waste, and we should not promote anything that is likely
to reduce the amount we can reuse or recycle. This is the case in the City
of York and across the EU."

The Green Party MEP Caroline Lucas, who visited York last week, was the
'shadow rapporteur' for the subject. She said, "The decision by MEPs to
reject an amendment which would have reclassified waste incineration is an
important step for the environment. Re-branding incineration as a means of
recovery rather than waste disposal could create the impression that burning
our rubbish is environmentally friendly, which it clearly is not. "

The average European is responsible for 534 kilos of household waste per
year. MEPs have called for the stabilisation of the levels of waste
generation by 2012, based on 2008 levels. In York waste levels are already
going down due to increasing levels of recycling. "This underlines the total
pointlessness of building an incinerator. We can deal with our waste
better - and more cheaply - without one," said Councillor D'Agorne.
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York Green Party