WHY are incinerators popping up everywhere? Is it because England desperately needs them? Is it because they provide clean energy? Is it because we can’t recycle enough? Or, is it because speculators and investors just can’t get enough of them?

With 48 in the UK, another 19 planned (one down the road at Portland), it’s time the questions were answered. Channel 4’s Despatches programme on Monday 8 March was going to lift the lid on all these myths and tell us the truth!

If, Denmark (previously leaders in energy-from-waste plants) announced in June that it wants to reduce incineration by 30%, the Welsh Government has declared a moratorium on new waste incinerators, and even our secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy, Kwasi Kwarteng, has refused planning development consent for a large energy-from-waste incinerator in Kemsley, Kent, then we begin to really wonder why on earth Portland should be forced to have one!

There’s no doubt that incinerators (or rubbish burners as I like to call them) reduce recycling, destroy valuable resources forever, release poisonous gases and dangerous ‘tiny particulates’ into the air, and contribute massively to global warming by releasing tonnes and tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Surely it has never been more urgent to STOP RIGHT NOW, don’t build anymore, and focus the country’s efforts on better solutions.

The Environment Bill 2020 wants us produce lots less rubbish. So let’s get on with it! Let’s make rubbish a thing of the past so that we don’t have to pollute the earth to make it in the first place, and then we won’t have to pollute it again to get rid of in in the second!

Giovanna Lewis

Haylands

Portland