Support for Lara anti-incinerator campaign

GREENS MP and former City of Greater Geelong councillor Sarah Mansfield is sponsoring a petition against a planned waste-to-energy incinerator at Lara.

Dr Mansfield has backed a campaign led by Geelong Sustainability to block the proposal from Prospect Hill International (PHI) to burn up to 400,000 tonnes of waste a year at a facility it would build at McManus Road – south-west of the main residential area.

The petition has surpassed 300 signatures earlier this week, after the Western Victoria MP tabled it in Parliament last week.

Dr Mansfield also spoke out against the plan at a community protest meeting at Lara last month.

“What I was seeing in my work [as a GP] was that the things that have the biggest impact on people’s health and well being is our social and our physical environment, and it’s projects like this,” she said.

“The issue with waste incineration is that it is not safe. It’s not clean and it’s not renewable, despite what you might you might hear from proponents. It’s not the direction we should be going in.

“It’s not safe… it will not just affect local residents and workers, but there is potential for this health impact to be felt much more broadly.”

In its application to environment authorities, PHI said its “state-of-the-art” facility would help reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfill in support of state and local zero-waste initiatives.

The proponents say the facility would produce about 35 megawatts of electricity – enough to power 50,000 homes – by burning municipal, commercial and industrial waste.

But objectors say the plan would cause unacceptable health impacts to nearby residents and questioned its claimed emissions-reductions benefits.

Environment Protection Authority Victoria is set to make a final decision on the project, which is expected imminently.