WASTE is being wasted. If we as a society are ever to deal effectively with our domestic, commercial and industrial waste, we need to see it as a resource, not a problem.

Other countries, notably Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Italy - especially Milan - are clean streets ahead of the UK in converting their waste via incineration into energy.

Though one understands the concerns of the Greens, Friends of the Earth and other worthy environmental organisations, our society simply cannot recycle everything nor can alternative sources of energy - photo-voltaic panels, wind farms, wave power and so on - ever produce enough energy and power to meet countries' growing demands. Simply dumping waste into landfill sites is, in the long term, untenable. It takes years for refuse to rot and produce methane, only a portion of which can be harnessed.

And can environmentalists tell me how long it takes for disposable nappies to disappear or whether landfill linings are totally secure? Leakage into the natural water table would be a disaster. It has happened.

No, incineration is the only safe and hygienic way to deal with many kinds of refuse.

Progress is being made in parts of the UK, notably Kirklees which has a waste-to-energy and recycling plant in operation.

City of York Council could approach the owners of Drax and Eggborough power stations to see if they could burn segregated refuse in their ever-hungry furnaces, obviating the need to build new plant - "merry-go-round" refuse trains added to coal.

The managing director of Drax is on record as wishing to burn more renewable energy. What, in our throw-away age, is more renewable than refuse? Drax already has highly effective "scrubbing" technology to reduce pollutant gases.

Derek Slater,

St Andrewgate,

York.

Updated: 10:51 Monday, January 16, 2006