Glasgow Incinerator To Get Go-Ahead?

Photo by Ole Poulsen

It looks like Viridor have had more luck hoodwinking Glasgow City Council than they have East Lothian Council so far, with the Herald reporting that a new incinerator is about to be given the go-ahead within the city limits.

Glasgow is, of course, hailing this as a great "green" thing to do. In actual fact, it's the cheap thing to do. Burning your rubbish removes landfill costs, and removes recycling costs because less trash goes into the recycling stream. Once the beast is up-and-running, the beast needs to be fed.

Look at it this way. The Glasgow incinerator will process 200,000 tonnes of rubbish. The Dunbar incinerator could take 300,000 tonnes of rubbish. Scotland as a whole produces 2.8million tonnes of rubbish (based on the latest figures). So Viridor's two massive incinerators will need almost a fifth of the entire country's trash, easily outstripping their host area's waste piles.

How many Councils will see it as easier and cheaper to fulfil their "green" commitments by sending their rubbish to Glasgow and Dunbar, rather than recycling it?

(See why incineration is a very bad idea here)