PEOPLE are being urged to have their say on how to reduce household waste in Swindon.
A six-week consultation is underway to glean ideas, views and objections, which will then be used to compile the Wiltshire and Swindon Waste Local Plan the planning blueprint for waste management across the region for the next nine years.
The document will identify suitable land for waste facilities, determine waste planning applications, and protect unsuitable sites from development until 2011.
An initial draft plan was published at the end of last year, and more than 400 individuals and organisations had their say.
The revised plan has taken into account 1,446 letters of objection and 196 statements of support.
The thrust of the plan is to find ways alternatives to disposing of waste at landfill sites.
Tim Perkins, senior planner at Swindon Council's environmental services department, said: "The key message is the move away from dumping waste in the ground, which has been the traditional way waste has been disposed of in this country.
"This document is looking at managing waste as a resource.
"The current recycling rate in Swindon is 15 per cent, but that figure has to be 30 per cent by 2003/2004 in line with Government targets.
"It's very important that the council pushes hard to get the recycling rate up."
In Swindon alone, one million tonnes of waste is disposed of at landfill sites each year, and household waste is growing by five per cent annually.
Some 37 sites across the county have been identified as areas where waste could be recycled in a variety of ways.
Greater emphasis is being placed on regaining energy from waste through heating without oxygen, bacteria (anaerobic digestion) and incineration.
Areas identified as suitable for small waste to energy developments were Compton Basset landfill site, near Calne, Ratfyn, near Amesbury, and the West Wiltshire Trading Estate at Westbury.
Seven sites in Swindon, including the Elgin industrial estate, Barnfield Road depot and former Southern Electric Board site in Faraday Road, Dorcan, have been earmarked as sites for waste management facilities.
The deadline for responses is Monday, October 21, 2002.
Comments can be made on freepost forms available from council offices and libraries.
Call 01225 713429 or Swindon 466513 for details.
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