Monmouthshire County Council has hit back at criticism of Prosiect Gwyrdd from Friends of the Earth in last week's Chronicle ('The great waste debate' ).

Prosiect Gwyrdd is a coalition of five local authorities - Monmouthshire, Newport, Cardiff, Caerphilly and Vale of Glamorgan - for a residual waste treatment facility to replace landfill sites.

FoE campaigners are urging that a recent MCC Cabinet decision to guarantee a minimum tonnage for incineration should be overturned because it would threaten the council's recycling services.

They also think the council should look at alternative solutions for residual waste treatment which they claim would be more adaptable and cost-effective.

Dave Harris, Head of Waste Management for the council said, "While we are pleased that the FoE are optimistic that our already above target recycling rates will continue to improve – an optimism we share – some aspects of their concerns are unfounded.

"The Prosiect Gwyrdd facility will not limit further recycling; this is a popular fallacy.

"Any short-fallings in waste produced requires the contractor to seek alternative waste to make up the shortfall, so we are confident that we will meet the minimum tonnage stipulations.

"The increases we projected come from the rising population in Monmouthshire as a result of additional house building as set out in the Local Development Plan; they have been professionally assessed by experienced waste officers supported by technical experts. So in fact, the possibility that more waste is created by residents than we have forecast is a bigger risk.

"If the combined recycling rate increases to over 80 per cent or beyond (as is hoped), this will not be a problem to the partnership and flexibility will be built into the contract to ensure changing waste flows can be accommodated."

He added, "The facility we are seeking to procure has gone through a long and thorough process in line with EU and Welsh Government procurement requirements and will provide the best value for money solution."

In contrast he said the solutions suggested by FoE were relatively unproven with Municipal Waste and, as such, could create risks of failure - 'risks we simply cannot take with public money'.

A spokesman for Prosiect Gwyrdd said partner authorities were committed to the legally-binding waste recycling targets set up until 2025.

The future waste calculations over the contract term had taken into consideration current recycling and composting trends, future recycling and composting predictions, the predicted population growth in the five local authorities as well as economic, demographic, environmental and regulatory factors.