A LEADING waste disposal company has written to Stan Waddington – the county councillor tasked with overseeing the £500 million Javelin Park incinerator project – to request that he stop making ‘incorrect statements’.

Chris Cox, the managing director of New Earth Solutions, wrote to Cllr Waddington on June 11 because he was unhappy with an article penned by the Conservative politician in a local newspaper three days earlier.

In the letter, a copy of which has been obtained by the SNJ, Mr Cox asks Cllr Waddington to ‘cease repeating’ and ‘retract incorrect statements’ regarding the operation of his company’s mechanical biological treatment (MBT) facility located at Avonmouth in Bristol.

Anti-incineration group GlosVAIN, which favours MBT as an alternative to incineration, has accused Cllr Waddington of trying to discredit the technology.

In his article, which Cllr Waddington said was designed to clear up ‘confusion and misinformation’, the Tory cabinet member stated: "almost three quarters of the waste treated by the Avonmouth plant is shipped to Europe for incineration or is put into landfill sites, either as landfill or a capping layer."

However, a press release issued by New Earth Solutions on the same day its managing director wrote to Cllr Waddington, pointed out that waste was only being exported to incinerators in Europe on a temporary basis – something Cllr Waddington neglected to mention.

In fact, New Earth Solutions is in the middle of constructing a gassification plant at its Avonmouth site, which, once completed in 2013, will process all of the material currently shipped to Europe, as well as generating enough energy to power 25,000 homes.

At present, the company diverts more than 95 per cent of the waste it receives away from landfill.

The MBT technology used by New Earth Solutions employs a mechanical separation system to extract valuable and recyclable materials from mixed rubbish which would otherwise be sent to landfill or incinerated.

GlosVAIN believe the technology used by New Earth Solutions – MBT in conjunction with gassification – is a greener and safer alternative to incineration.

The Avonmouth plant was recently credited by Bristol City Council for a surge in the city’s recycling rates, which have leapt by 12 per cent in a year.

Cllr Waddington, GCC's cabinet champion for waste, said: “I have received a letter from New Earth Solutions and have written back to ask what statements they believe to be incorrect as their own press release appears to support my comments.”

Ian Richens, a spokesman for GlosVAIN said: "It is ironic given that he was claiming his article was an attempt to clear up confusion and misinformation. He is trying to discredit MBT."