I AM surprised that the York and North Yorkshire Waste Management Partnership is trumpeting the results of its "public consultation" (February 13) as I was told that there were so few questionnaires returned that the results would not be statistically significant.

After reading about the consultation in the Evening Press, I went into 9 St Leonard's Place, York, to ask if I could take part in the process, as I am very interested and involved in sustainable waste management.

The City of York Council staff member had not heard of the consultation and she rang Kristy Walton who is head of waste reduction and recycling. The message came back that not enough of the questionnaires had been returned to give statistically significant results and that the consultation would probably be re-run.

I was not asked to leave my contact details even though I said I was very keen to make my views known.

For the record, I do not support incineration of domestic waste as a management option.

Materials should be recycled for re-use and biodegradables processed using composting and/or anaerobic digestion and, of course, we should produce less waste in the first place.

Incinerators are responsible for emitting lots of "fossil" CO2, as much of the feedstock are plastics, made from oil, and this contributes to climate change.

Although there are difficulties in recycling plastics there is much research and we should invest in this.

Finally, I believe the huge cost of an incinerator (and pelletisation plant if used) would act as an economic barrier to maximum recycling as the incinerator would be a permanent "cheap" disposal method.

The more expensive waste disposal is, the more cost-effective recycling is.

John Cossham,

Hull Road

York.

Updated: 10:19 Thursday, February 16, 2006