IN SPITE of the unquestionable progress that has been made in recent years towards recycling household waste, there is still an enormous quantity of polythene and plastic products which we are still having to consign to the wheelie bin, the contents of which are destined for landfill.

Many packaging products from supermarkets are actually marked ‘not currently recycled’, and examples of those that go to landfill are the liners from cereal packets, the clear polythene covers from meat/fish packaging, and the millions of small polythene bags provided in supermarkets for fruit and vegetables.

Whilst manufacturers need to be pressurised to wherever possible use recyclable products, those against the building of the incinerator should note that the simple solution is for all types of polythene packaging to be cleanly incinerated for energy recovery.

This would mean far simpler recycling for the general public, further reductions in landfill, and much needed power being fed back into the grid.

To those concerned about emissions from waste -to-energy plants, countries like Sweden, who are especially concerned about their environment, have been processing their waste for many years in this way, and now have over such 30 plants, recycling well over 90 per cent of their waste.

The technology involved has advanced considerably. The sooner the new local waste-to-energy plant is commissioned the better.

Bob Kingsland

Brownshill