Councillors visit incinerator

Over 50,000 tonnes of Wiltshire's annual waste production is driven to Slough to be disposed of in the Lakeside Energy from Waste plant. Wiltshire's contribution represents about 20% of the incinerator's capacity. The waste is used as a fuel to generate electricity which is fed into the national grid.

The facility opened in 2010 and is one of a new generation of EFW plants which generate low levels of emissions. The increasing cost and environmental impact of landfill means the incinerators are seen as financially viable and environmentally useful.

A group of councillors together with officers from the waste disposal section of the council visited Lakeside on June 15th to see how the plant works. One long term possibility is that Wiltshire could develop its own incinerator so our waste could be disposed of without having to be transported out of the county. At the moment about 90,000 tonnes of municiple waste is still landfilled out of a total collection of 250,000 tonnes (including recyclables).