West Sussex could start shipping rubbish out of the county, at potentially vast cost to the taxpayer, because of a looming waste crisis.

Experts at West Sussex County Council predict they will run out of landfill sites within six years.

They say unless more applications for fresh sites are received, refuse may need to be taken outside Sussex.

Brian Johnson, the council's principal planner in minerals and waste, said: "There is no doubt the situation we find ourselves in is of grave concern, because it is essential we find places for our rubbish.

"If we don't find more suitable sites within the next six years we will have to transport our waste to other areas such as Bedfordshire and Essex, which will mean excess costs."

Applications for landfill sites and incinerators always prove controversial, meaning the planning process can be delayed.

More than 4,000 people objected to the first draft of the council's Waste Local Plan, which identifies 48 potential landfill sites across the county.

It is likely that after the plan is redrafted a public inquiry will be held, pushing back its implementation until spring 2004 at the earliest.

Mr Johnson said: "Every site we have included in the plan so far is unique. That means they will always cause very different concerns among the people who live nearby."

A planning application is due to be submitted by the end of the year by Cory Environmental for a site off Freshfield Lane, Horsted Keynes, near Haywards Heath, which is in an area of outstanding natural beauty.

That submission alone has attracted 1,408 objections and seen residents establish an action group.

Environmental pressure group Friends Of The Earth says the only way to reduce the need for landfill is to reduce the amount of waste produced in the first place.

Regional campaigns co-ordinator Amanda Brace said: "About 80 per cent of everything we buy is recyclable, so we should not be chucking it all away to begin with.

"Local authorities and the Government need to do more to offer people cheap and easy methods of recycling their rubbish.

"It seems clear, however, that there is simply not the political will to do that.

"I cannot understand why councils are so keen to build incinerators and not recycling centres. The will is there - people want to re-use their rubbish - but it is not being made easy for them."