PLANS have been announced to build a recycling facility at Javelin Park – adjacent to the planned UBB incinerator.

Advanced Recycling Technologies Gloucestershire Ltd (ART GL) hopes to build a Mechanical and Biological Heat Treatment (MBHT) plant at the site in Haresfield which will be operational by 2015.

The plant will be built to fit within existing planning restrictions – including a height limit of 15 metres – and has a build cost of £20 million.

According to ART GL the facility will eventually have the capacity to process all of Gloucestershire’s waste.

Anti-incineration campaigners have always supported the construction of an MBT facility at Javelin Park because it would recycle huge amounts of rubbish which would otherwise be burnt and would also be less visually intrusive.

“GlosVAIN have always agreed that we cannot keep sending waste to landfill,” said the campaigns spokesman Ian Richens.

“This proposal would be a much less expensive solution which would not have the associated health concerns and would be within the height limit for the site imposed by the Secretary for State in 2007 of 15.7 metres.

News has also emerged this week that waste management company Cory Environmental is applying for permission to build a MBT and an AD unit at their site near Cheltenham.

“ This is further evidence that to burn waste much of which can be recycled was a solution of the 20th Century and has no place in the 21st Century,” said Mr Richens.

Tom Jarman, a director at ART GL, said: “I am very pleased that we are able to develop this facility so close to my home town of Selsley.

“This process allows us to deliver exceptional benefits to the local environment and economy.

“It is also great to offer a positive message on the use of waste as a resource for Gloucestershire creating a far more sustainable solution than incineration or landfill.

“ART GL is not affected by UBB’s plans for a waste incinerator on the adjacent land firstly because we believe these plans will not go ahead.

“However, ART GL’s far lower operational costs and the value of our output means we can offer lower gate fees to our commercial and industrial waste suppliers offering savings of 40 per cent or more.

“It is just a pity that GCC are locked into a much more expensive and more environmentally damaging solution for the county’s household waste.”

A spokesman for Gloucestershire County Council said: “This has been a really thorough process where we looked at all technologies suggested to us, fairly and impartially which were required to do by law.

“Every decision along the way has been open and transparent and ultimately the incinerator project would save Gloucestershire’s council tax payers £190million overall.”