The site will process domestic and commercial waste, and refuse-derived fuel (RDF) will be baled and exported to the UK using spare capacity on existing freight services. The waste company Geminor UK will then transport this to Jonkoping, Sweden.
The contract will cover up to 25,000 tonnes of RDF a year, which will be used to help provide both electricity and district heating for about 17,000 Swedish houses. Guernsey will collect food waste separately, which will also be used to generate electricity and produce compost.
Most RDF from the UK is exported to northern Europe for use in large, efficient energy-from-waste plants. By contrast, the Jersey incinerator is smaller and cannot achieve a high-energy efficiency, as it is not connected to a district heating system.
Guernsey has signed a three-year contract, with an option for a further two years for its waste exports. When the Jersey incinerator was being planned, some politicians suggested that it could be used to burn Guernsey’s waste as well. Such was the confidence in procuring a deal that the potential income was included in successive budgets. Despite several attempts, the price demanded by Jersey was too high and no deal was ever done, and there is little prospect of a deal in the future.
The Environment Minister now wishes to amend the waste law to make it easier to import waste in the future, by seeking to allow the Jersey incinerator to be classed as a recovery plant under EU regulations. However, this can only be achieved if the energy efficiency exceeds 65 per cent while previous data published on the incinerator suggests that it does not operate at this level.
Even if the efficiency of the local plant could be improved and another country wanted to send waste to Jersey, there are significant reasons why this should never be agreed. Every extra tonne of waste incinerated will generate nearly a tonne of climate changing carbon dioxide when Jersey has committed to reducing its carbon footprint. Many other polluting gases are also emitted and large quantities of ash are produced, which require careful and expensive disposal.
With no green champion at present in the States, all the hard-won environmental progress previously gained is likely to be seriously weakened or even overturned.
