A NEW method of waste disposal looks set to start trials at the West Wilts Trading Estate shortly.

Locally based EPI Ltd have been granted temporary planning permission by Wiltshire County Council for a plant using the pyrolysis method of waste disposal.

Pyrolysis heats waste products in the absence of air in order to decompose them. EPI's Mark Collins-Thomas claims that the process has "almost zero impact upon the surrounding environment".

The method has already gained enthusiastic support from both official quarters and local action groups.

David Levy, chairman of The Air That We Breathe, said, "What I like about it is that it is cheap enough and small enough to be attached to every trading estate and any large housing estate in the country."

The plant, which Mr Collins-Thomas describes as, "not much bigger than a family estate car," operates in a sealed environment. There is no burning of waste involved and no need for a chimney or flue of any kind.

Mr Levy feels that pyrolysis is the way forward in waste management, and stresses: "It is important that the Environment Agency give this company the chance that incinerators have had."