Stop the Cardiff incinerator

Nearly 100 local residents and campaigners turned out at the end of July to lobby the Environment Agency (EA) against granting environmental permission to waste management company Viridor’s proposed Cardiff incinerator.

Edmund Schluessel

Cardiff Stop the Incinerator (CSI) lobbied the Environment Agency for five hours, asking probing questions which showed deep flaws in their draft decision.

The EA has requested additional written comments on at least four of CSI’s points: air quality management, health effects of incineration, handling of leftover ash, and consultation with the area’s parents and children.

The EA was forced to admit that their information on Cardiff’s air quality was at least three years out of date and missed the emergence of an “Air Quality Management Area” covering the Cardiff Royal Infirmary and directly in the path of any output from the incinerator.

Campaigners have also found that the EA’s position on the cancer link with incinerators is based on a single study from 2000, ignoring the decade of intervening research which shows a clear connection between living near an incinerator and developing liver cancer, kidney cancer or non-Hodgkins’ lymphoma.

Dr Max Wallis explained how Viridor had provided no real plan for handling ash from the incinerator.

The fly ash and bottom ash produced by incineration contain concentrated toxic chemicals such as cadmium and dioxins, and the 18 tonnes a day the incinerator would produce would either be stored in Cardiff or transported miles overland, risking spills and accidents, and landfilled.

CSI opposes incinerators, not just in Cardiff, but everywhere; we say no to the Cardiff incinerator, no to the Merthyr incinerator, and no to the Barry Dock pyrolisis plant, another form of incinerator.