Smaller incinerator the way forward
AFTER many frustrating years reading, listening and viewing the Guernsey debate on the island waste problem, I thought I would add to the many letters you have received over this problem. I would like to write this with very little spent on investigating my thoughts (leave that to the island leaders). First, I would bring in an incinerator of a much smaller scale than the one that was first introduced and continue to recycle, which Guernsey people are very conscious about with a good recycling rate.
Get together with our Jersey friends immediately to start taking our waste for incineration while our incinerator gets up and running.
When this is in place we can start to dig out the quarry (Mont Cuet) waste and feed it through the incinerator, therefore we can have our hole in the ground back for further development.
Recycling, yes, but only through selected sites around the island and these must be super sites which will take all recycling so householders can visit these sites with a one-stop drop-off. Remember we are a small island so we don't want sites with limited recycling, with the general public having to go to several sites to dispose of their recycling goods.
Also, the bring banks are a proven way for the materials to get collected and delivered to the recycling businesses and remember, it is already sorted by the islanders, so in effect from bin to conveyor belt the product gets baled.
Working with Jersey we would, in effect, have plan A and plan B set up immediately and down this route we could kick off almost immediately.
With a Jersey, Guernsey venture into island waste we could actually do away with recycling completely and incinerate everything. This would utilise the under-used Jersey operation (incinerator) and take up some of the spare capacity they have and double up with Guernsey waste using the proposed Guernsey incinerator.
With super sites we could get rid of kerbside recycling because this system doubles up the work when a good percentage was being done by the islanders using the still running bring banks.
I would like to state that this is my own opinion and I have done very little groundwork on this, but I do take an interest in what I see and read and it appears we are going nowhere fast – and I would like to emphasise that this ongoing problem could and should be solved with the expertise we have on island with the waste and recycling experienced people.
T. A. R. DUQUEMIN,
Tarwyn,
Barras Lane,
GY6 8EJ.
