Sir - Your correspondent, Gerard McCrum (Letters, August 10), says energy from waste may well be the technology of the future.

It has in fact been around for decades and was developed before climate change became an issue. The only thing that has changed is that there are now regulations that prevent operators from allowing the dioxins created by the burning process to go up the chimney.

He says the Hampshire energy from waste unit generates enough electricity for 8,000 homes and is cleaner than a coal-fired power station. The gases coming out of the chimney might be cleaner, but there are two things that are worse than a coal-fired power station:

1: The electricity generated produces more fossil fuel-derived CO2 per kilowatt hour than a coal-fired power station

2: All the ash from a coal fired power station is supposedly safe enough to dump in the open in gravel pits (witness Didcot).

Whereas some of the ash from an energy from waste unit is contaminated with dioxins and other so-called "Persistent Organic Pollutants" and has to be kept safe from the wider environment indefinitely in a specially licensed hazardous waste landfill site.

The more you find out, the less palatable it becomes.

Steve Gerrish, Kidlington