NOBODY thinks an incinerator is the perfect idea, and many councils have spoken out against it.

But some believe this is better than the alternatives, and gives a good opportunity to locals and the country.

As one letter to the Advertiser said, the alternatives are much worse. AJ Atkinson of Stockbridge wrote: “Surely, it’s better to have a clean burn and produce electricity than plastic blowing around our countryside, or spending money sending our waste abroad polluting other countries?”

The Wheelabrator Harewood plant offers millions of pounds of investment to the area to make jobs and fixes two of our country’s biggest problems.

Paul Green, vice president of business development from Wheelabrator, said: “Using the most conservative estimates we’ve identified a capacity gap of around 900,000 tonnes a year in this region.

“This waste is currently moving outside of the area to be landfilled or even being exported overseas.”

Andover Advertiser:

According to figures, the government is struggling to cope with the amount of waste the country produces. The UK made 8.6 million tonnes more waste than it could dispose of in 2016.

A lot of that waste travels through ports on the south coast, polluting as it goes. At the other end, most likely in China, most of it would still have gone into landfill.

Because Britain can’t deal with our own refuse, the country has to pay other countries and rely on them letting chemicals seep into the ground.

In 2018, China banned several different types of imports, and the world’s whole waste system has been changing since.

Those in favour of the Harewood plant say it would improve how this region works with waste. Wheelabrator says it would deal with more than half of the shortfall, power Andover and create metal, aggregate and jobs.

However, as campaign group Keep Test Valley Beautiful (KTVB) ask: why do we want this here? There are plenty of advantages to the country, but, they ask, what is in it for Andoverians?

Mr Green said: “We believe the site is an appropriate choice because due to the fact it is central to the region and close to both the A34 and A303.

“These major roads are already carrying much of the waste that would be managed by the Harewood plant. Being next to the existing ash processing facility will also help us reduce the road journeys too needed to recycle ash and metal.

“This also means we could explore using heat from our facility in their processes, reducing their reliance on fossil fuels for energy.”

This year, people have become more active than ever against climate change, and KTVB have used adverts to criticise the emissions from the plant.

The group claims the plant would be one of the more polluting ways of making power, but documents provided by the company show it is much better than the alternative: landfill.

Particle emissions, those shown in projections from the group, may sound scary but they are unlikely to come close to levels with any effect on health. Most of the time, they would not even affect the area's air quality score, according to estimates.

Paul Green said: “Diverting non-recyclable waste from landfill delivers climate change benefits, and this plant directly supports the UK’s aim of achieving net zero carbon by 2050.”