The claim that the tip will cause a decline in tourism numbers is, pardon the pun, a load of rubbish. Tourists and locals would not even be aware that there was a tip. I believe 90 per cent of people living in the Shoalhaven wouldn’t even know where the Tomerong Quarry is. Did the Menai tip, for instance, stop development in that area? No.

I suggest that council staff, who are determining the outcome of the tip proposal, take the NIMBYs to visit the old Woodlawn Mine site (Woodlawn Eco Precinct) and see how these modern, efficient, ventures operate. Fifteen per cent of Sydney’s waste is sorted to extract plastics, organics etc then the remainder is transported by train and it ends up in the Woodlawn hole, which it is thought will take 100 years to fill.

The bioreactor extracts methane gas, which is used to generate electrical power. The French company operating the site also plans to build a 50MW wind farm at the site.

K. Cummins,

Nowra.