A farming community is fighting the erection of a “26 metre clinical (medical) waste incinerator” near their land in Huntingdonshire.

Chicken farmer Simon Bluff is among those concerned about Envar’s plans for its recycling plant and the potential impact on St Ives and surrounding villages of Bluntisham, Woodhurst and Somersham.

The composting company claims that a healthcare waste ‘energy recovery facility’ – heating new dry anaerobic digestion (AD) units containing organic waste – would be an ‘innovative’ solution to the problem of extra rubbish generated during the pandemic, while reducing odours.

But residents are less concerned by the smells and more worried about the potentially toxic pollutants released through the new chimney and into their food chains.

Mr Bluff, whose 28 thousand chickens roam 200 metres from Envar’s site, fears “the dioxins will come into my field and lands, the chickens will ingest them, they will go into the eggs, the eggs will be unsaleable and I will go bankrupt.”

Downwind towards Bluntisham, a traditional fruit-growing area, Robert Bousfield of Heath Fruit Farm is likewise worried about the threat to his eight thousand-strong orchard.

This seems so typical of NIMBYism, with exaggerated criticism and irrational claims of harm.

More at: Cambs farmers fear bankruptcy as compost company eyes up 26m medical waste incinerator