Bedfordshire's plans to create a £120m energy-from-waste incinerator between Stewartby and Millbrook came under attack at a heated public meeting on Monday, March 17.

Environmental campaign group Friends Of The Earth claimed the plant would be inefficient, and the money could be better spent on waste reduction and recycling schemes.

Spokesman Mary Edwards said an energy-from-waste incinerator would, "waste natural resources, it undermines recycling, it worsens climate change, it pollutes and it costs a great deal of money.

"Councils are saying we know incinerators, we trust them. (But) they do not have to try too hard because they can fall back on this monster in the corner.

"We should not be incinerating huge amounts of material, spending £100 million and tying ourselves to a 23-year contract. We need to do a better job of recycling."

The meeting was organised by the Bedfordshire Climate Change Forum and held at Stewartby Village Hall, close to the Rookery Pit site earmarked for the controversial development.

Experts on the disposal of waste gave differing opinions on whether the plant proposed by Bedfordshire County Council – which would cost at least £100m and maybe £20m more – is the best way to cut the amount of rubbish going to landfill.

Peter Davis, director general of the British Plastics Federation, defended the plan, drawing on the success stories of similar plants in Europe.

He said: "We are lagging behind Europe on this front. In the EU energy from waste is not cutting recycling.

"New plants are efficient and create very little dioxin. The plant in Esjberg, Denmark, is 90 per cent efficient."

Ms Edwards questioned Mr Davis' motives for backing an incinerator.
She said: "It's interesting that the biggest problem we have with waste is over-packaging and the biggest part of over-packaging is from plastic, which needs to be stopped from going to landfill."

But Geoff Brighty, from the Environment Agency, said that Bedfordshire had to cut the amount of waste it sent to landfill as well as dealing with hundreds of tonnes of rubbish brought from London.

He said incineration provided one solution, but needed to be balanced with recycling. He added: "There is no win-win situation here.

"Bedfordshire is part of a bigger whole, which is the East of England. I am not worried about there not being enough rubbish to feed an incinerator, I am worried about there being too much."

Mid Beds councillor Alison Graham suggested bringing rubbish into Bedfordshire from across the country could worsen the carbon footprint of waste by putting more trucks on the roads.

But Bedfordshire County Council expects to submit a planning application to build the plant in the summer.