SIR – At a meeting of Worcester City Council’s scrutiny committee on October 30, it was said within the context of a discussion about food waste that the proposed incinerator at Hartlebury is “universally accepted”.

Regular readers of these letters pages will know that this is simply not true.

We risk paying massively over the odds for our waste.

Treating food waste through anaerobic digestion currently costs about £40 per tonne compared with about £80 to landfill and about £130 if incinerated.

Within the next few years, councils are likely to be paid to take food waste due to the potential to create energy from anaerobic digestion.

Indeed, it was stated in the Local Government Association report titled ‘Wealth from Waste’ published last June that ‘burning (waste) is still expensive; recycling actually brings in cash for the taxpayer’.

According to the Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association (ADBA), separate food waste collections can save local authorities millions on the cost of disposal.

Evidence also shows that weekly food waste collections are popular with local residents.

A study by Icaro Consulting found that households who had a weekly food waste collection awarded the service 7.9/10 and a 2011 Friends of the Earth study found that 82 per cent of residents who had a food waste collection supported the service.

NEIL LAURENSON

Green Party Councillor

St Stephen ward