New plan to beat waste plant stink

A waste plant is planning to double the size of its chimneys to try to get rid of odours upsetting neighbours.

Residents in Farington have been complaining about the stenches coming from Lancashire Waste Technology Park in Sustainability Way, Leyland, for more than a year.

Now bosses at the £320m site, a joint venture between Global Renewables and Lancashire County Council, have applied for planning permission to extend five biofilter exhaust chimney stacks in a bid to tackle the smells.

They reckon increasing the height from 39ft to 82ft will disperse the air better and greatly reduce the odours. They also want to heat waste using a new machine to reduce the pressure on the system they already have

A planning statement, submitted to South Ribble Council, explains: "The primary function of the odour management system installed is to reduce the potential for impact on local residents and their environment.

"Its current configuration is not as effective as originally envisaged and accordingly, the proposed increase in height of the stacks has been

modelled as the most effective and immediate way of ensuring that potential fugitive odour issues can be mitigated to the appropriate levels as originally planned."

Some neighbours reckon the plan will not be enough to tackle the smells, however.

Objector Stephen Oldham, who lives on nearby Bispham Avenue, wrote: "Raising the height of the exhaust stacks will not have any effect on the odour.

"The problem should be solved at its source, with no odour being emitted into the atmosphere. More than doubling the height of the stacks will have an adverse effect on residential property."

Guidelines for Recycling Plant

RINGWOOD-based business CMA Recycling is being forced to comply with strict operational guidelines following a decision by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal last week. VCAT has ordered Maroondah Council to endorse the management plans developed throughout the tribunal proceedings, including dust, noise and odour regulations. Council chief executive officer Frank Dixon said the decision was welcomed "as it imposes many, and very detailed, obligations on how CMA must operate its business and how CMA must monitor the impact of its operations on others". "Clearly council's decision to bring the proceedings was justified and necessary to bring CMA's operations into line," he said. "While holding CMA to account has consumed significant council and community resources, council remains committed to protecting the amenity and health and safety of its community." But the tribunal hearing showed CMA was not entirely in the wrong, with senior member Jeanette Rickards, who presided over the hearing, saying "it seemed to me that in relation to the management plans neither [the council] nor CMA were very clear as to what they really wanted". "The plans presented required a considerable amount of work from both sides to ensure that they are effective, enduring and implement a reliable regime in terms of management, particularly of dust, noise, odour and explosions." The Weekly recently reported CMA had announced it would be moving the Heatherdale Road shredder within two to three years to a more "suitable" location.

Smell you later: The nose knows - and can significantly boost memory of products

Contrary to popular belief, researchers say the true power of scent isn't in affecting our mood — surprisingly, an uncommon occurrence — but rather its capacity to make us linger longer, spend more, recall brands more positively, and greatly improve our memory for products. In fact, a new study shows the latter effect is so potent that it even outshines an advertisement's visuals in terms of boosting brand recall. "When I first started doing this work, I assumed that if scent had an impact, it would be primarily related to people's moods. But it's actually rare that I find that effect," says Maureen Morrin, a professor of marketing at Rutgers University in New Jersey. "In my analyses, memory is improved because scent makes people pay closer attention to things. It makes them look longer and process more deeply." This bears out in a study conducted by Morrin and May Lwin, of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, using 100 women in a simulated movie-house environment. The cinema was used because it's one of the last strongholds of captive audiences, with consumers being unable to fast-forward through ads and less likely to divert their attention from them. Participants were shown a spa ad in one of four conditions: scented theatre, ad with pictures; scented theatre, ad with no pictures; unscented theatre, ad with pictures; unscented theatre, ad with no pictures. In the scented condition, a rose-sandalwood combo was used because pre-tests revealed it as an especially pleasant odour to women. Ad recall was tested five minutes later, and again in two weeks, with a scent strip used to trigger memory. In both cases, scent proved a mighty force. "When the ad contained pictures as opposed to no pictures, memory went up. If you added a scent, memory went up. And if you had both pictures and a scent, consumers' memories improved by more than those two things added together; that is, one plus one equalled more than two," says Morrin, whose study appears in the Journal of Consumer Behaviour. "So not only do scent and pictures help memory, when you put them together, they have a super-additive effect." But don't expect commercials in smellovision anytime soon. Morrin notes that the cost of installing scent diffusers in theatres is unlikely to be tolerated until studies establish a clear return on investment. She also says there are limitations to its use in large groups because many people have olfactory sensitivity. The effects of scent on brand recall are so strong, however, that marketers can be expected to leverage them in more practical ways — some of which you may have already experienced. A handful of Canadian liquor stores, for example, have pumped the aroma of freshly cut grass into beer aisles to evoke cracking a cold one at a BBQ. Last year, Spy Kids 4 was presented in "aroma-scope," with audiences being given scented cards to sniff at different plot points. There are even burger-scented candles designed to remind White Castle patrons of the chain's beefy fare. "When you're in an environment with a pleasant odour, somehow your brain is telling you that it's a safe place," says Morrin. "It's almost a Darwinian thing." Indeed. Survival of the fittest wallet.

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