Weymouth Town Council has increased the frequency of promenade recycling bins emptying from twice weekly to five times per week 'due to the popularity of both residents and visitors using these facilities.'

Proof that people are now much more aware of the importance of recycling and reducing waste from unnecessary sources.

This culture change will accelerate. A terrible time therefore for Powerfuel to plan for a Portland Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) burning RefuseDerived Fuel (RDF).

Powerfuel trumpet their potential to deal with all of the Dorset generated RDF. So the news that Eco Sustainable Solutions are planning their own ERF in Dorset (Echo ‘Eco Waste Boost’ Nov 4) must be extremely worrying for Powerfuel. Eco actually make the RDF from Dorset’s waste and so Powerfuel would have to buy it from them and transport it from East Dorset to Portland by road. This is nonsense in both economic and environmental terms.

Powerfuel also claim to reduce carbon emissions by providing shore power to cruise ships and by having the capability “of providing heat to local consumers by means of a future local heat network”.

Remember the Covidincubating Diamond Princess cruiser with its 700 Covid cases and 13 deaths? See the current state of the cruising industry by looking out into Weymouth Bay!

This potentially lucrative source of electricity sales for the ERF has been sunk by Covid.

Local district heating? There is no commitment to actual plans for this, but Powerfuel hopes to reach “full heat export (….) by 2034, 10 years after the plant opens.” So over the next decade, so crucial in trying to rein in carbon emissions, these theoretical carbon savings will simply not materialise; nor will income be generated.

The business model for the Portland ERF is falling apart.

An increasingly waste-averse Dorset population resulting in feedstock supply diminishing year on year, competition for feedstock from within Dorset, a moribund cruising industry closing the door on shore power and a district heating system that is merely aspirational!

This ill-conceived project needs to be consigned to the waste bin by councillors on planning committees saying NO to Portland incinerator.

DR GRAHAM LAMBERT

Weymouth