A WAR of words has broken out between Coventry City Council and angry green protesters demanding the authority shut down its waste incinerator.
The protester’s from local green organisations including Extinction Rebellion (XR) marched from the Godiva statue in Broadgate through the precinct on Saturday after claiming the incinerator belches out huge amounts of CO2, causes cancer, and undermines real recycling.
But the council has dismissed these claims as ‘misleading and inaccurate’ and added the waste-to-energy plant complies with all government regulations.
Protesters claim high levels of air pollution come from the waste incinerator, which is majority-owned by Coventry City Council.
It further claimed a ‘colossal’ 65 per cent of the waste the council collects is burnt and it recycles just 26 per cent, ‘one of the lowest rates in the country.’
An XR spokesperson added: “Residents are asked to put everything for recycling into the blue-topped bins but this means much of the waste gets contaminated.
“For example, many residents will take the time to wash cans, glass and plastic containers, and separate their cardboard and paper, but this comingled collection often leads to contamination.
“Coventry has one of the highest rates of contaminated waste in the country, 17 per cent primarily as a result of the way it collects the waste.”
“The incinerator is bad for our health and bad for the climate.
“It produces some electricity, but very very inefficiently.
“It is twice as dirty as coal, for CO2 emissions, and ten times worse than the average for electricity generation in the UK.
“This means that everyday toxic air is spewed out across the city from the plant to be breathed in by thousands of children and adults, increasing the number of cases of respiratory illness, heart disease and cancer.
A Council spokesperson said: “The figures and facts the protesters quote are misleading and inaccurate, the waste-to-energy plant complies with all government regulations.
“It’s also true we continue to work with residents to increase our recycling levels and following investment alongside our partners into the world-leading recycling facility in the city we will be shortly announcing even more materials than can be recycled through the blue-lidded bin collection.
“We are proud to take our waste and recycling responsibilities seriously and we do not chase results which can often see waste problems shifted elsewhere.”
