Sian Berry, the Green candidate for Mayor of London, will today visit the site of the South London Incinerator near Croydon and pledge to do whatever she can to halt the scheme if elected to City Hall.
She will be accompanied by Shasha Khan, the Green parliamentary candidate for Croydon North since 2005, and a prominent campaigner against the controversial £1 billion scheme.
In advance of her visit Sian Berry said:
“As the Mayor’s own planning and waste policies acknowledge, incineration is the least desirable form of waste management. It produces toxic emissions and nano-particles that are harmful to human health as well as greenhouse gases that are terrible for the environment. It also acts as a disincentive to recycling, not least because giant plants like this one will need to import waste to fulfil its long-term contracts and make profits for its shareholders over 25 years.
“Next year’s mayoral race has been billed as the greenest election ever. My Conservative, Lib Dem and Labour rivals all come from parties who have backed this expensive, environmentally unfriendly scheme, either at City Hall or local council level. I hope they will take the opportunity to distance themselves from those bad decisions by their party colleagues.
“If the facilities were provided London could reduce, re-use or recycle all its waste. That would save more energy than we could produce from burning it. It would also create more jobs without contributing to air pollution or degrading the natural environment. If we are serious about making London the greenest city in the world, we need to embrace these 21st century approaches not the toxic, last-century idea of incineration.”