Deputy mayor open to incinerator in Campbelltown
Two Campbelltown councillors have voiced their support for a waste-to-energy incinerator in Sydney.
At Tuesday’s council meeting, Greens councillor Ben Moroney asked his fellow councillors to write to the Department of Planning citing their opposition to a proposed waste facility in Blacktown, with fears air pollution would compromise Macarthur’s breathing air.
His motion was lost, however, after passionate speeches from Labor councillors Rey Manoto and Meg Oates.
Cr Meg Oates said she had visited a waste-to-energy incinerator in Koshigaya, Japan (Campbelltown’s sister city and the namesake of Koshigaya Park) and was blown away by what she saw.
“The cleanliness was the biggest thing that struck me,” the deputy mayor told the Advertiser.
“It’s almost like a church or a cathedral in its size and space.
“The whole place is amazingly clean and pristine, there’s nothing dirty or horrible about it.
“It’s extremely efficient.”
Cr Oates said some of the most thriving cities in Europe routinely built similar incinerators close to places like schools, houses and shopping centres with no ill effects.
She said such a facility would be a great fit in Sydney.
“Tempered with the appropriate health precautions and environmental considerations, I think the technology in these type of facilities is so efficient and advanced that they would be a huge benefit,” she said.
“Obviously anything in the area would need to be researched extensively – nothing would go up overnight – and we’d need to make sure there would be no damages to health or environment, but we can’t do nothing.
“There’s not going to be less waste in the area in the future, there’s going to be more and we can’t just keep going to the landfill.”
Cr Oates said at the meeting the incinerator in Koshigaya was a tourist attraction and drew frequent tours.
She said waste was turned into energy and metals among other things, and no smoke or emissions were visible.
“They have an emission trapping scheme which is brilliant,” she said.
“It’s nothing like the rubbish burning from the 1970s.”
She said if the council was to voice blanket opposition to Blacktown’s incinerator they would be “sticking their noses in and being a bit rude”.
“I couldn’t see us putting up with this if Blacktown told us what to do. It’s up to them to make their decisions.”
Cr Manoto also spoke highly of the waste-to-energy incinerators at the meeting.
He said Sydney was more than a century behind the curve when it came to renewable energy and waste reuse.
He did, however, say he did not support the current proposal before Blacktown Council and would like to see more conditions placed upon it to counteract any health or environmental risks.