MP’s praise for green technology
Friday 6th March 2009, 8:40AM GMT.
Ludlow’s ground-breaking £2 million biodigester which converts food scraps into electricity and compost should be replicated in other parts of the country, the town’s MP has told the Government.
Philip Dunne accused ministers of being “asleep at the wheel” and “slow” to recognise the potential and benefits of the green technology pioneered by South Shropshire District Council in the county since 2007.
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The plant in Ludlow – the first of two such operations in the country – is capable of processing 5,000 tonnes of food waste a year.
At present, scraps in separate special blue wheelie bins are collected from some 7,000 households every week.
“Residents now accept the scheme as part of the fabric of Ludlow and are beginning to see the benefits,” said Mr Dunne.
“The plant is a prototype and could be replicated across the country.
“Around 30,000 to 50,000 households would probably bring the concept to a commercial level and would be appropriate for most large and medium-sized towns,” said the Tory MP.
And he argued there would be a significant reduction in both the cost and the environmental damage incurred in the transport of large volumes of waste over large distances to the few available landfill sites.
Shrewsbury and Atcham MP Daniel Kawczynski joined in the debate in the Commons on Wednesday, and called for ministers to look into the potential for generating energy through heat by putting slurry into digesters.
Junior environment minister Huw Irranca- Davies said the Government supported the development of green technology and was looking for 100 commercial plants to use food and other organic materials to generate electricity, and had outlined plans for 1,000 farms to use digesters to deal with farm slurry.
By Sunita Patel
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This is great – why cant we have one in Shrewsbury too????
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AD is a great technology and should be much more utilised around the UK to create green jobs and green electricity
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OOOOOOOO STINKY
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good for him, hes right, we should do this all over the county
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im proud of this as a ludlow resident, we think its great and hope more people copy us, South shropshire district council should be applauded for their work on green issues, its only a shame they are being swallowed up against the will of the people or they could do more of this type of thing in other towns in south shropshire
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you see Conservatives are being green, well done to our fantastic conservative MP for this, and Daniel is doing a great job for shrewsbury making it greener too, when we get in we will have weekly bin collections all across Shropshire and less council tax too, we will be green but mean and lean with the cash too, we are so good at getting efficientcy you see, not like loony lefty labour who spend money on silly social projects with no return, you will see all this recycling nonesense will go and we will slash taxes for everyone, especailly clown browns awful 45 p for the upper band
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There’s no money in it for big business, so why would the government be interested?
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you must be joking maco – these get double roc’s you know that means a subsidy of ca 7p per unit of electricity they generate, plus you can sell the heat also, further every tonne they process reduces the need for about £80 worth of landfill costs, so they are (abeit through a rediculously favourable fiscal regime through a government who seems keen to be seen to be green on electricity) so they are way better than say wind turbines in terms of profitable and simple green electricity, but… only becauseof massive public subsidy which conservatives are historically opposed too
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well done ludlovians ahead of the game as usual, proud to be an old ludlovian
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Well done, Ludlow.
We need this sort of technology to be introduced all over the country.
We need a green industrial revolution, and technology like this is a rational way of dealing with our increasing mountains of waste, and making it work for us.
It will therefore be both popular and sustainable.
Let’s hope this example inspires other councils, who favour incineration, to think outside the box.
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Well , this is a new one to me, because our Brisbane City Council made available to us, at special price, Black recycled plastic Compost-Bins. We use these to make Compost for the garden. One of the many things we put into the Bins is FOOD SCRAPS from the kitchen.
As PETER P says, about collection bins, OOOoooh stinky!
We also have small businesses here that, leave 1 cubic metre bags at your house, (small charge on collection) to collect excess garden waste, which they take away and compost themselves to sell.
Could this be another Bio-Mass Fuel?
PS; We already have Yellow recycle bins for Bottles, Paper etc, collected bi-weekly, to be processed at a central plant.
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why are the council in shrewsbury proposing mass burn incineration when there are great technologies like this available instead, as huw says, think outside the box shropshire county council, see if you can ‘learn some best practice’ from south shropshire, incineration is a health hazard and likely to be taxed in future along with landfill to encourage more recycling, so what on earth are they doing risking our health and public wealth on a risky dodgy investment like a mass burn incinerator, yet if we have a bonfire, guess what, the council so no, because ITS A HEALTH HAZARD!!
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why is tory boy and the mp trying to take credit for this?
get this a Labour government funded it, yes as part of an EC strategy, and a lib dem council in south shropshire, helped get it going, with planning permission, funding and crucially doing the food collection
Just where did the tories help at all in fact, oh right they voted against the landfill regulations,voted against the EU, voted against paying renewable obligation certificates for green energy
interesting, tories are green now yeah?
Yeah right, remember Labour is the ONLY government in the world who has made reducing CO” a statutory obligation
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if the MP is so keen will he commit the conservatives to funding more AD plants, will he support say £5 on council tax for all to fund weekly food waste collections across all the UK, will he support green taxes to disuade people from landfilling or incinerating waste, will he support regulations against supermarkets on packaging???
Will he???
or is he just another same old tory, low taxes, low levels of services, pro business, low regulation, no environmental protection??
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why cant we have weekly food waste collection in wem, we are all meant to be one council now after all !! we put all our food in the green cardboard bin and its so disgusting and rancid after a while i gave up and just put it in the black bin for landfill, atleast thats in plastic bags
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Labour boy spoke about CO2 emissions.
What does he think of the Labour government giving the go-ahead to the biggest expansion in aviation in a generation?
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lets get off the punch and judy show, politics ruins debates
personally i think its good that the MP has highlighted this success story, its an example for more councils in the UK to follow
i wish T&Wrekin would look at it instead of the proposed Granville incinerator, as the other chap says, its more economic long term due to the fiscal framework which subsidised the electricity from truly ‘green’ sources like anaerobic digestion
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£2million for 5,000 tonnes of waste, that’s a snip at £400 per tonne!! Veolia plan to build a £60 million pound burner in Harlescott to deal with 90,000 tonnes of waste, thats £666 per tonne! Plus thats just the half of it, with it being a PFI deal the council is effectively buying it on a credit card, so expect interest rate repayments in the region of 50%, this is madness and shows their maths dont stack up
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remember when we get in again, we will introduce weekly waste collections all across Shropshire
Labour does fortnightly bin collections, conservatives will do it weekly, and cut your council tax too, win win
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why do you want food waste collections, compost, keep pigs, keep chickens, feed the birds. tut tut
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i wish we could have one in Shrewsbury
there is one in Minsterly at the dairy so perhaps they could use this and organise a food collection in this area
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certainly people should compost at home, btu i hope the council does weekly food waste collections across all of shropshire soon as this is just what we need for jobs, green power and techonological advancement for UK PLC
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its clear that there is near universal support for this techonology, so come on get your finger out everyone, lets have more food for energy collections across the rest of county
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looks like its virtually unanimous that Shropshire needs more Anaerobic Digestors, are the powers that be listening!!!!!!??????
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