GREENPEACE today joined the chorus of disapproval over Lancashire County Council's plans to develop a £300million waste incinerator in the county.

Despite claiming the establishment incinerator was not a foregone conclusion, county councillors have agreed to submit a request for £300million of government money to fund a Private Finance Initiative which would result in all Lancashire's waste management being handed over to a commercial company.

The £300million would include the cost of a waste incinerator, described by the county council as the only practical solution to putting rubbish in the ground.

Lancashire County Council's waste management strategy -- developed in partnership with borough councils -- should enable more than one million tonnes of waste per year by 2020 and reduce waste growth throughout Lancashire.

It aims to have 58 per cent of household waste recycled by 2020.

Any excess waste will have to be dealt with in other ways to landfill, because the European Union is levying massive charges for dumping rubbish in the ground within the next 10 years.

The waste strategy indicates that an incinerator is the best way forward -- and the PFI money would make it a possibility.

But Greenpeace today slammed the plan, backing the opposition presented by ARROW, an organisation created to stop incinerators.

Mark Strutt, toxic campaigners for Greenpeace, said: "Disposal technologies like incineration are a thing of the past, like land fill, and are not a solution.

"A strategy needs to be developed which takes us out of the dark ages of waste disposal to a new era of utilising the resources in household waste."

ARROW is opposing incinerators on waste grounds, claiming the toxins produced by the burning of rubbish have caused cancer in other countries and led to children developing small genitals.

Spokesman Nicola Escott said: "We are pleased to have Greenpeace's support."

The incinerators would produce energy which could be used to back up the National Grid.

In its waste document, Greenpeace urges more education on waste, with more accessible recycling including individual doorstep collections for every type of recyclable material. The waste management scheme is expected to lead to a £50 increase in council tax across the county.

A spokesman for the county council said: "Lancashire County Council is broadly in agreement with many of the points made by Greenpeace and the need to increase the amount of rubbish recycled every year in the county."

Councillor Brian Johnson, whose county regeneration cabinet position includes waste management, said: "Lancashire County Council is committed to reducing the amount of waste

that we landfill every year.

"This will mean increasing recycling and composting of a variety of materials and making this an attractive alternative for people.

"The more waste we all reduce, reuse or recycle the less likely it will be that we in Lancashire will have to consider unpopular disposal methods such as energy from waste incineration or other alternative technologies."