AN environment initiative aimed at creating an alternative to the £500m Javelin park incinerator is officially up and running.

After months of co-ordination and planning, Community R4C has now been registered by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The initiative is aimed at creating a recycling and biomass plant near Stroud.

The group is supporting the development of a facility that it says can put more than 90 per cent of the county's waste to valuable use instead of burying or burning it.

And the proposed build cost of the plant comes in at just £15m - just eight per cent that of the incinerator.

Sue Oppenheimer, a director at Community R4C, said it was an “important step forward” for the project.

“It means we are now officially set-up and established legally and can now begin our fund-raising campaign and get the entire community involved,” she said.

"The planned recycling plant really is a much better environmental solution than incineration and the financial returns will be used for community benefit.”

The centre will take ordinary ‘black bag’ waste and sort it mechanically using the latest technology, extracting anything that can be recycled and turning the rest into a clean biomass fuel.

The process is known as MBHT (mechanical, biological and heat treatment) and is in use at a number of different waste treatment plants around the country.

The group say this method can put more than 90 per cent of Gloucestershire’s waste to use instead of putting it in landfill or burning it.

Mrs Oppenheimer argues the plant will be smaller, more environmentally friendly and cheaper than the large capacity incinerator that is due to be built near Haresfield.

She is hoping this rival centre will persuade the county council to look at alternatives to burning and undermine plans for the incinerator.

The centre would be commercially funded and operated for community benefit.

This means that after investors have been repaid, a quarter of all profits from the plant will be channelled into a ‘community chest’ - which would be used to fund and support local projects that reduce waste and increase recycling.

Gloucestershire residents will be able to buy shares in the scheme in April.

For the plan to succeed, the money will need to be raised along with gaining the support of the various councils.

Stroud District Council have already begun the process of looking at the business plan for Community 4RC including the due diligences.

The centre, which could be built next to the incinerator site, is expected to be operational in 2018.

But Urbaser Balfour Beatty, the company contracted to build the incinerator for the county council, said: “The Javelin Park facility, which has both a planning permission and Environmental Permit, was selected during the county council’s procurement process, which was technology neutral.

Stroud News and Journal:

“UBB’s Energy from Waste (EfW) facility is based on proven and established technology with around 500 plants operating in the UK and Europe.

“The Javelin Park EfW will manage the waste from Gloucestershire’s 600,000 residents that is left over after recycling and offers a number of environmental and economic benefits.

“The facility will generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of over 25,000 homes, as well as recover around 3,000 tonnes of metals and produce over 30,000 tonnes of aggregates per year.”

Construction on the Javelin Park facility will commence later this year.