Waste contractor Onyx appears to be making a desperate bid to persuade East Sussex residents that burning 600 tons of unspecified waste a day in Newhaven is somehow a good idea.

If this was a less serious issue, it would almost be funny that it describes its proposed incinerator as an "energy recovery facility".

With the soaring cost of home-energy bills and warnings about possible power shortages, anyone taking Onyx's sales pitch in its planning application at face value might actually think building this plant would somehow help keep our lights burning.

But the truth is different.

Firstly, burning 600 tons of rubbish every day would actually mean a large amount of recyclable material, which could be re-used, will go up in smoke. This would therefore reduce the amount the county recycles.

And if you were to remove all recyclable material from the waste we generate - including biodegradable waste - there is actually insufficient "burn" value in what's left to make incineration viable.

The amount of energy consumed in bringing this unsorted waste from across the county to Newhaven for burning and then removing the resulting toxic ash is ignored by Onyx in its calculations.

Though the current version of the local waste plan being considered for approval early next month by East Sussex County Council (ESCC) neither recommends nor excludes incineration, it is obvious the council's waste-disposal strategy hinges on an incinerator.

Why? Because rather than planning for what should happen when local landfill sites close, something which has been known about for years, the council has dithered, delayed and passed the buck from one administration to the next.

The council's intention to opt for mass-burn incineration will produce toxic emissions and a huge amount of carbon dioxide.

In light of recent figures which show the UK falling behind its Kyoto protocol carbon dioxide reduction targets, the case for incineration is even less favourable.

And why should we in Eastbourne care about what happens in Newhaven?

Being just an hour downwind of the proposed incinerator and with local geography acting as a weather trap, we would be one of the prime recipients of the ash spewed out of this ill-thought-out panic measure.

After ten, 15 or 20 years of this dangerous waste being deposited on the town, I wonder if ESCC will be asking Onyx for the money needed to build the "health recovery facility" we will need by then?

-Clive Gross, principal spokesperson, Eastbourne Green Party,www.eastbournegreenparty.org.uk