Environment

£50m waste-to-energy plant brings cancer scare

by Paul Conneally | October 5, 2008 at 01:13 am

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Aberdeenshire is the place where Donald Trump wants to turn a huge swathe of land into what he calls 'the world's greatest golf resort' but it's also the palce where Buchan Combined Heat & Power Ltd want to build a waste-to-energy plant and locals feel this will increase the risk of cancer to people in the area.

At a time when most unrecyclable waste (71% in Scotland) is put into landfill there are many that argue that the new technologies being used in these plants is a good way to cleanly get rid of waste and use the heat and gasses produced to turn turbines to make electricity and also use heat directly to heat homes.

Peterhead Council report that powerful environmental group Scottish National Heritage is backing the plan as long as a survey of bats and badgers is done before any work goes ahead. This said local people are still worry about dioxin and other polutants that they believe will be discharged into the air as particulate matter and they have been mounting protests against the plant.

A plan to develop a waste-to-energy plant in Aberdeenshire has sparked a massive protest campaign over fears it could cause health problems.

More than 4,500 people living in and around Peterhead have signed a petition against the £50million plant which developers Buchan Combined Heat and Power Ltd claim will burn a third of the north-east of Scotland's rubbish and produce enough power for approximately 10,000 homes. Six hundred letters of objection have been submitted against the proposal.

Residents are concerned it will spew a deadly mixture of chemicals over the area, causing increased rates of cancer, heart attacks, clinical depression, autism, asthma and coronary heart disease. Their fears have been fuelled by a retired GP from South Wales, Dick Van Steenis, who claims research into similar plants in other parts of the country has demonstrated an alarming rise in serious illnesses in surrounding communities.

'The company's own environmental statement says it will emit arsenic and dioxins which are highly carcinogenic. One of the main things it emits apart from mercury, arsenic, cobalt, and lead is particulate matter,'