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Why do we not agree with waste incineration in cement factories

September 25, 2014

Waste management is based on the priority of waste management, namely: 1. prevention of waste generation, 2. reuse preparation, 3. recycling, 4. other processes for recovery, eg energy recovery, and 5. disposal of waste.

Waste incineration is in the waste management hierarchy at the farthest place. Waste incineration is directly opposed to the first principle of responsible waste management “REDUCE”, since burners / cement plants would be competitive and marketable, it is necessary to be constantly full of fuel or waste. In this way, we are encouraging the build-up of the consumer mentality, which is one of the key causes of today’s pure environmental condition and the exhausted and destroyed natural resources.

The Environmental Impact study of the facility for the reception, temporary storage and fueling of waste for the factories at Sv Juraj and Sv Kajo, is foreseen to incur 142,560 tons of fuel annually. Today, the amount of communal waste disposed in the Split-Dalmatia County area amounts to approximately 158,000 tons, when we are not even close to fulfilling the EU requirements on the minimum share of 50% of the total mass of waste collected for recycling and reuse, to which we have obliged in order to enter The European Union.

From one ton of mixed comunal waste it is possible to get 230 to 500 kg of RDF / SRF. From that, it follows that for CEMEX factory purposes, waste will be imported, thereby contributing to further environmental pollution (by combustion as well as fuel transportation) and not addressing waste management at the local level.

The purpose of the environmental impact study is to identify, anticipate and assess the environmental impacts of different projects. The environmental impact assessment is carried out prior to the decision on the implementation of a particular project. An integral part of the environmental impact study makes considerations related to the social, cultural and health impact of the planned project. Special attention is paid to the careful assessment of all the impacts that the planned operation can have as well as cumulative impacts and measures to prevent, mitigate and overcome the significant and adverse impacts of the proposed projects.

Also, the compulsory content of the environmental impact study is a variant of solutions that have not been studied in the Studies for the use of fuel from waste at the factories of St. Juraj and Sv Kajo. Furthermore, we consider that the cumulative effect is not well considered, as it does not take into account the pollution caused by traffic, ironwork and other plants in the Kaštela Gulf.

The share of chlorides and heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium is higher in waste fuel than currently used as fuel for coking coal, which will lead to their increased emissions into the environment as demonstrated by the Environmental Impact Study. In addition to the mentioned use of waste fuel will lead to increased emissions of dioxins and furans. All of these compounds are toxic and prone to bioaccumulation or staying in the environment.

Both factories are located in a protected coastal area. The Split-Dalmatia County Spatial Plan defines how areas of production can not be planned in the coastal and island areas of the County, and for “existing industrial manufacturing facilities or complexes (basic chemical processing industry, etc.) that have adverse environmental impacts can not plan to increase surface and other interventions in these zones in terms of increasing spatial needs and increasing the production capacity of these facilities, modifying environmentally-friendly fuels as well as restoring or replacing the technological equipment of existing production capacity. Production facilities can be approved for operations that are exclusively designed to reduce adverse impacts on the environment. “

These are just some of the reasons why we have filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Nature’s decision to alow use of waste for fuel to be considered environmentally acceptable. So far, the first hearing was held, and the next one was announced for November.

Our previous activities and attitudes as well as the course of events related to the preparation of environmental impact studies both for the use of municipal waste and the railway thresholds for which CEMEX also found a positive solution can be found at the link https://sunce-st.org/arhiva/eko.php?category=programi&blob_id=259&lang=hr.

 

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