From J Fox.
I NOTED in your newspaper (JEP, 3 September) comments made by Peter Le Cuirot on the high cost of heating greenhouses for tomato growing; and on 8 September you reported that the Jersey Produce Marketing Organisation is to stop trading due to growers facing high costs, which I assume are mainly for heating glasshouses.
For years, waste oil was collected free from myself and a number of other engineering firms and garages around the Island by Mr Le Cuirot for heating his greenhouses. We even had a free box of tomatoes.
However, a few years ago we were levied a charge of £15 to collect and dispose of the oil at Bellozanne. I believe we had to pay about 30p a litre as well, this being the charge levied by the States to burn the oil.
The charge per litre was later dropped. I was told that this charge was due to there being too much waste oil around and nowhere to store it.
If that is the case, why are more growers not putting it to good use and recycling the free oil available? The technology exists to separate out any water, and I’m sure that suppliers could be persuaded to store only clean used oil.
The oil importers are importing thousands of gallons of lubricating oil every year. It must be going somewhere after its useful life is spent.
I was told by a friend of mine in Guernsey that the glasshouse growers over there paid up to 20p a litre for waste oil for heating.
It would seem that some of the growers here, not all, have had cheap heating for many years. It makes you think, doesn’t it?
Maison Signaux,
Chemin des Signaux,
St Brelade.
