Unsurprisingly, the initial response to the announcement that York has been chosen as a likely location for a waste incinerator is one of uproar.

However, if the proposed incinerator was to also be a power generation plant, particularly a combined heat and power facility, the supplies generated would provide an environmental benefit.

The processes of transporting and recycling waste all consume energy.

But if the waste is used to generate energy, then the balance of consumption and production is levelled out.

If one requires figures to back up this assertion, then one can read a study on the environmental benefits of power generation from waste compared to dumping and recycling which was reported in New Scientist just over two years ago.

However, the environmental benefits pre-suppose that the incinerator is operated properly, and that the temperature is not allowed to fall below the safe level when dioxins would be released.

I leave it to readers to decide on the likelihood of this scenario.

Dr Duncan Campbell,

Albemarle Road, York.

...MR Cadoux's letter warrants a few corrections about Rechem's activities in Scotland.

I worked for Rechem for a number of years.

The company's decision to close the Bonnybridge plant was nothing to do with dioxin releases or associations with birth defects.

It was to do with the impending requirements of the looming Environ-mental Protection Act 1990 (EPA). This legislation required Rechem to invest several million pounds in the plant to bring its abatement or gas scrubbing equipment up to EPA expectations.

Coupled with this, the incineration capacity in the UK as a whole was shortly to increase through the construction of a competitor incinerator at Ellesmere Port near Liverpool.

In short, Rechem felt that it could not sustain its four incineration plants and closed Bonnybridge.

Any birth defects at the time in Scotland were never linked to Rechem and the level of defects in that part of Scotland still remains at the same level to this day - ie the national average.

Jaimie Dobson,

Helmsley Grove,

Wigginton, York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.