Council will write to the Minister for Energy and Environment the Hon Matt Kean MP voicing its opposition to the proposed Matraville incinerator following a motion by Councillors Christina Curry and Scott Morrissey at last night’s Council Meeting.
“This sort of incinerator so close to our border is not good for our residents or the environment. I applaud the efforts of Councillors Curry and Morrissey in opposing this project,” Mayor Bill Saravinovski said.
Both Cr Curry and Cr Morrissey urged Council and the community to get behind their motion and be vocal in opposing the incinerator.
“This 17-storey monstrosity might be located in the Randwick LGA, but with the southerly winds coming off the Bay the poisonous plumes will be blown across the whole of Bayside and down to Sutherland,” Cr Morrissey and Cr Curry told the meeting.
“We need to stop this before it is too late.”
Council also resolved to write to all the local Members of Parliament, and conduct an advertising campaign similar to the “No Cruise Ships in Botany Bay.
There has been strong opposition to this project by other Councils and local communities have been effective in demonstrating to the EPA that incinerators in a densely populated city are fundamentally incompatible with the health and well-being of nearby residents.
Council believes, based on the criteria in the Environment Protection Authority’s (EPA) Energy from Waste Infrastructure Plan, that the proposed incinerator should not proceed and will ask Minister Kean to clearly stipulate that the Matraville incinerator is not of a type that could be considered.
In November 2019, Bayside Council resolved to make a submission to the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment outlining significant environmental issues that required further detailed assessment in relation to the proposal by the Opal’s (previously Orora) Paper Mill and Suez Group for the construction of an incinerator in Matraville near the Bayside border.
SUEZ and Opal plan to build a waste to energy facility to power the paper mill with a 60m high stack that would burn 165,000 tonnes of non-putrescible material a year just 130 metres from homes.
The proposal is classified as State Significant and will be determined by the State Government.
The plan is still current, and the next stage is for the proponent to lodge an Environmental Impact Statement, which will go on Public Exhibition.
A new State Government Energy from Waste Infrastructure Plan, released on 10 September 2021, bans energy from waste projects in the Sydney basin, unless they are replacing the use of coal or petroleum-based fuels at an industrial site.
In the case of the Opal Matraville Paper Mill, the facility already uses natural gas to power the plant which is typically regarded as a cleaner fuel source than burning coal or waste.
