Inside the gasification plant.
BREAKDOWN of the Island’s gasification plant has meant 6,000 tonnes of rubbish, which would have been burned to produce electricity, have been buried instead.
The mountain of waste filling up the Island’s landfill tip at Standen Heath has continued to increase since April as engineers struggle to make the ground-breaking plant work.
Isle of Wight Council director of economy and environment Stuart Love said: "Since April, Biffa has sent 6,000 tonnes to landfill that would normally have gone through the Forest Road gasification plant.
"However, additional recycling of many materials, such as cardboard and paper, is taking place daily to reduce this. This kind of waste would otherwise have been processed as fuel for the plant.
"When the plant is running, around 65 per cent of waste is diverted from landfill. While the plant is out of action, this figure is currently around 45 per cent.
"Although this is somewhat lower that we would like, it still shows we are diverting a significant amount of waste from landfill.
"Recognising the council is incurring additional costs as a result of the plant being shut down, both Biffa and Waste Gas Technology (WGT) are providing financial compensation to the council.
"This is currently tens of thousands of pounds and they are payments they are not contractually obliged to make."
WGT says it is confident that, after replacing all the filters and having made earlier improvements to the flue gas system to address abnormally high dioxin measurements, the plant is operating effectively.
But it says the brief two-day testing period when the plant was temporarily re-opened to measure emissions, which were still above EU safety limits, was not long enough to prove the effectiveness of the improvements and wants permission for extended testing.
A spokesman said: "We are continuing to consult with scientific advisers, who say the latest test results are likely to be due to a 'memory effect’ of extremely small quantities of residue in the system downstream of the filter and the levels can be expected to reduce over an initial short period of operation.
"In addition, an independent health risk assessment study has been completed in response to potential health concerns. This shows that even if an individual lived right by the plant, and was exposed to high dioxin emissions for 70 years, the adverse effects to human life would be low or effectively zero."
Reporter: richardw@iwcpmail.co.uk