Incineration had been rejected twice by the Derry public.
1991
Opposition to DuPont’s toxic waste incinerator transcended political differences. The campaign was the most successful cross-community project in 30 years of The Troubles. No government funding involved. JUST INTRINSIC HUMAN MOTIVATION!
2002
Derry City Council plans for a municipal waste incinerator were rejected by the Derry public.
Our story begins in January 2013 when we heard that a municipal waste gasification facility was to be built at Strathfoyle.
Citizens were assured that gasification was not incineration; that this was state of the art technology with multiple safety features. It would actually generate electricity back to the grid. Legislation driving the move to incineration was a result of landfill’s impact on climate change. We needed something innovative to deal with our waste. So burning it and getting energy back was surely good?
The questions that remained were;
“How different is gasification from incineration?” “What are the problems with incinerating waste?” “Does it address those problems?”
We discovered the concept of “Zero Waste“.
Environmental campaigners in 2002 had invited Dr Paul Connett, an environmental toxicologist, to bring our city up to speed on this solution. He has literally written the seminal book on the movement to Zero Waste.
It became clear that we are in a waste generation crisis.
It then became clear that all forms of incineration/gasification have multiple human and environmental health implications.
Even with their state of the art filters they still release an aerosol of nano-particle toxins into the local atmosphere. These fall and bioaccumulate in the food chain.
Trying to make waste appear to disappear is just landfill in the sky.
Incineration and gasification are a pseudo solution to the crisis. Once built these hugely expensive monster machines need to be fed. This creates a demand for waste 25 years into the future (the normal length of the contracts councils are tied into at inception to finance them). Meanwhile the energy captured in the process is only 25% of the embedded energy in the resources, so 75% of their value is lost to the economy.
We realised that Zero Waste is the only authentic solution to our waste generation crisis and an appropriate response to the climate crisis.
Watch this short video by Professor Vivyan Howard on the issues.
And this even shorter video on Why Yes To Zero Waste
In March 2013 in the context of being for Zero Waste, we formed Zero Waste North West to oppose the plans for the gasification facility. The aerosols released would threatened our air, water and soil. It would be a local driver for climate change, creating demand for ‘waste’ into the next 25 years.
In March 2014, after a year of public education, lobbying, creative campaigning and modelling zero waste, council abandoned their plans for the gasification facility.
Once plans for the incinerator were defeated, with our slogan, “No To Gasification – Yes to Zero Waste” we committed to work with council and the local community to implement Zero Waste. This would necessitate a culture shift in local attitudes and behaviour towards ‘waste’. To support that objective we joined ZWE a member based organisation co-ordinating and sharing expertise across the network of grassroots organisations in Europe leading the transition. We knew that with council on our side the culture shift could be achieved in partnership because that is how it is happening across Europe. It would set us apart as a model of best practice on these islands. It was the direction of travel of EU legislation and so would effectively future proof our economy too.
Thornhill Mayor
With incineration off the table we immediately began organising to win the argument for a zero waste strategy for the city region. Integral to this was lobbying our political representatives for finance to commission a bespoke business case study into its viability for the Derry/Strabane city region.
June 2015
We hosted Derry’s first international conference on zero waste, Countdown To Zero. See below the video of Joan Marc Simon, ZWE’s Director’s opening address. His comprehensive overview of the case for Zero Waste left attendees from across the statutory, business, community and education sectors in no doubt about its viability and the direction business was going in.
By 2016 we had secured £20k of our £44k budget for the research from DAERA and another £20k from DCSDC. This with an in-kind contribution of £4k from ourselves to co-manage the process resulted in an Invitation to Tender being issued. Eunomia won the tender and their final report A Circular Economy Zero Waste Strategy for the city region was published in November 2017.
In December 2017 it was unanimously adopted by Derry City and Strabane District Council Cou
The report made clear that if we were to implement the strategy as outlined
N.B. The Strategy Report revealed that more than 90% of recyclate captured by DCSDC’s co-mingled (blue bin) system is exported as it’s of insufficient quality from cross-contamination of the waste streams for local reprocessors who have to import the quality they require from elsewhere.
The Strategy pointed out that transforming the area into a Zero Waste Circular Economy would put Derry & Strabane ahead of the curve, giving it a leading role within the UK and Ireland. This would require Council to transform its ways of dealing with ‘waste' and to lead: “- a culture shift in both attitude and behaviour - within the region involving council actively considering the adoption of a phased strategic change to collection methods in tandem with public education which redefines ‘waste’ as vital resources. “It’s not waste until it’s wasted””
We expected an energy shift from lobbying to partnership-working with council officers on implementation (design of new collection methods, their rollout and the public education that would ensure their successful take-up).
Signing up to becoming the first certified Zero Waste City-region on these islands and maximising publicity would signal the new attitude while underscoring the robust environmental and economic benefits it would bring.
This important yet simple process could have been completed immediately but took a further two and a half years of pushing. We were delighted when it happened but given the struggle it took our confidence, in key officers’ resolve to actually implement the strategy with ambition, was wavering.
Up until it’s declaration to become a Zero Waste City-region update meetings, officers referenced vague aspects of internal scoping processes on how they might engage with stakeholders. We were informed about council initiatives after implementation rather than being a partner in bringing the Zero Waste Circular Economy into council working. We continually sought engagement and pushed for specifics outlined in the Strategy, like
“A Route map should be developed which outlines detailed actions, the planned
timings of these, who is accountable and stage-gates to monitor progress”. (after 5 years no route map has emerged)
Commitment to newly sought monthly update meetings was primarily from us. We pushed for updates on internal reviews of the 37 Policies in the Strategy and the followup research on KSS.
The Taggart report on KSS that was eventually presented to Council was radically at odds with those in the adopted Strategy, yet it was presented as valid and no concerns were raised by officers. We pointed out the discrepancy in the report and Council asked officers to scope out costs for a peer review of the Taggart Report by WRAP. Council officers subsequently convinced council that it was’t necessary.
After a review of our relationship with Council it was agreed that as a matter of integrity we must withdraw our endorsement of their Zero Waste City-region status.
“Right now we are in a fast river together –
every day there are changes that seemed unimaginable until they occurred……
What a time to be alive.
That we are in this total paradigm shift…
tasked with standing before these potentially transformative junctures for our species.”
Adriane Maree Brown
This quote opened our presentation to John Kelpie as CEO of DCSDC on 26th September 2022.
We stressed that while withdrawing our endorsement of the authenticity of Council’s commitment to Zero Waste we were not closing the door to the possibility of a real partnership between us emerging in the future. The first step towards that would be the urgent commissioning of the Independent Peer Review by WRAP of the Taggart Report.
The presentation made clear that we will continue to be about the transformative change needed, the afore mentioned paradigm shift and when council are ready to meaningfully engage on this we will still be here. In the interim, we remain open to real engagement on a project-by-project basis.
We delivered a SPECIAL BRIEFING to DCSDC councillors on 18th November 2022 and informed Zero Waste Europe of our decision.
We are mindful of the strong support from councillors for our engagement with Council and continue to make ourselves available with Council as a political body at this critical time for the implementation of the circular economy and zero waste strategy in our council area and across the island.
After 9 years of attempted systematic engagement with council we are withdrawing our partnership due to a lack of meaningful engagement or implementation of a Circular Economy Strategy.
We will focus on prefiguring, anticipating and celebrating the future economic, social and ecological story of the Region.
We will continue to nurture this ecosystem with hope, integrity and care for each other.
Our Naw To Straws campaign is another example. We also offer Journey To Zero support for local cafes and other businesses in waste reduction through better design. Our work zero wasting the Stendhal Festival being a prime example as is the establishing of The Use-less Shop, a package free shop a number of our members initiated. We also established a series of Terracycle local Collection Points for recycling old biros to demonstrate more ways to salvage the resources in hard to recycle ‘waste’. We also have a Zero Waste Juniors Club and a vibrant community events calendar to foster our relationship with and love of the earth. This might be actions like tree planting, or Litter-picking or our annual marking of Earth Hour and our Enough Stuff Festival, Our Facebook page helps to spread awareness and supports Zero Waste Lifestyle options for both individuals/businesses.
Please consider getting involved by Becoming A Member. If you can take a few minutes to complete the short pro forma we will get back to you promptly. There might be a particular part of our work already underway that you have an interest in or a new direction you want to suggest. This is not our world it is yours too. Let's be about the change we want to see.
Become a MemberThis is not someone else's world it is our world. We transform it together by being the change we want to see.
