Warning on toxic ash recycling

INTERNATIONAL ecological watchdog Greenpeace joined conservationist groups on Majorca and in the European Parliament yesterday in giving a warning about the possible dangers of using ash generated at the Son Reus rubbish incinerator. Following on from authority proposals that the ash could be used in the making of cement for highway building and other public works, the environmentalists pointed to the fact that the incinerator residue contains heavy metals such as lead and mercury, and dioxins. Spain's Greenpeace director, Juan Lopez de Uralde; the country's Green Party Eurodeputy, David Hammerstein; and Balearic Green Party deputy, Margalida Rosselló, condemned as “irresponsible” the planned enlargement of Majorca's Rubbish Processing Plan which would mean the building of new incinerators and the use of residual material in construction programmes. Apart from putting forward legal objections to the project which is currently undergoing a period of public scrutiny, the ecological group will highlight the dangers of the Council of Majorca's plans to recycle incinerator waste material. Greenpeace is to launch a campaign to stop the plan being put into action and to raise public awareness amongst the Islands' inhabitants about what they may be subjected to should the recycling go ahead. The ash would have to be submitted to a very costly decontaminating process in order to be made safe.