by David Ettershank
I was proud to stand beside almost 100 Sunbury residents who gathered on the steps of the Victorian Parliament to oppose the giant rubbish-burning incinerator proposed for Sunbury.
The No Sunbury Waste Incinerator Group organised the February 18 protest. I have supported this group since its formation because I know Sunbury is not the place for an incinerator.
After the protest, Parliament’s Upper House debated whether a waste incinerator should be built in Sunbury. The debate was triggered by a petition, signed by 3,264 people, that I tabled in parliament.
New South Wales has banned waste incinerators in metro Sydney and only allows them in outlying regional areas. Victoria’s Labour government is plonking huge incinerators in Melbourne’s outlying suburbs. It has issued 11 so-called ‘waste to energy’ licences in locations that also include Wollert, near Epping (to burn 760,000t annually), Laverton (to burn 280,000t annually), Dandenong (100,000t annually), and Maryvale (to burn 650,000t annually). The license for a waste incinerator to burn 400,000t annually in Lara, near Geelong, was withdrawn last year following community outcry.
The Allan government is building a ring of fire around Melbourne. The Sunbury incinerator would burn 750,000 tonnes of rubbish every year, but the people of Sunbury aren’t throwing away anything close to three-quarters of a million tonnes of rubbish annually. The total landfill for the entire LGA of Hume is just 14,000 tonnes. That means they would need to truck in an additional 736,000 tonnes from all over the state, possibly beyond, to keep feeding this very hungry incinerator. It’s going to cost around a billion dollars to build the thing, so the financial backers will need it to keep burning for DECADES to make a profit.
And there are no plans to build incinerators in well-heeled suburbs like Kew or Brighton, only in the towns and suburbs of working Victorians. That speaks volumes about the Labor Government’s attitude to Melbourne’s outlying suburbs … it’s okay to trash them!
This is an industry many European countries are retreating from, and the European Union is refusing to fund because of its environmental impact. Burning waste may reduce landfill use, but the problem of what to do with the toxic ash produced by incineration remains.
The toxic ash, with all those carcinogenic forever chemicals, will need to be stored in a non-permeable landfill indefinitely.
Anyone who’s driven around Sunbury knows the roads are already congested. If this project goes ahead, an extra 700 trucks will head to the Sunbury ‘ecohub’ each week, clogging local roads and releasing a staggering amount of noxious vehicle emissions into our suburbs.
There are so many waste reduction solutions that could be scaled up. So why has this government adopted a philosophy of Burn, Baby, Burn?
I encourage any individuals or organisations with an interest in waste-to-energy, including residents of Sunbury, to put in a submission to the Inquiry into Waste-to-Energy Infrastructure via the QR code.
By David Ettershank, Member for Western Metropolitan Region.
You can contact his office
via phone (03) 9317 5900,
or visit www.davidettershank.com.au
