Binn Farm methane argument ‘untrue’

Apr 16 2010 Perthshire Advertiser Friday

Dear Editor, – In his recent letter (PA, April 9) John Ferguson suggests that without a new incinerator at Binn Farm we’ll have to send biodegradable waste (mostly food, paper/card and garden waste) to landfill where it will rot and produce the powerful greenhouse gas methane. This is simply not true. Biodegradable waste can be recycled or treated by composting or anaerobic digestion, which emit no methane to air, and barely a tenth of the CO2 of incineration.

Later in his letter, Mr Ferguson implies that the people of Perth and Kinross are too stupid and feckless to separate biodegradable waste from the rest of their rubbish, leaving incineration as the only option. The evidence shows that when local authorities make recycling easy, people will cooperate to a high degree. For example South Oxfordshire District Council has increased recycling and composting to over 71 per cent (compared with 46.6 per cent in Perth and Kinross) thanks to its new kerbside collection scheme. They achieve this by recycling many more things than Perth and Kinross. These include food trays, fruit punnets, plastic bags and envelopes, which Perth and Kinross wants to burn instead. This is a great waste of resources. Friends of the Earth have calculated that recycling saves four times as much energy as can be retrieved by burning.

Michael Gallagher,

Green Alternatives to Incineration in Scotland,

33 Precinct Street,

Coupar Angus, PH13 9DG.