THERE’S no dispute that as a nation we cannot continue burying our waste in the ground.

There isn’t the room on this island to do it without causing major health and pollution hazards to anyone living nearby.

And the amount of new landfill sites this country needs will soon mean that it won’t be long before almost everyone is within smelling distance of one.

Alternatives ways of disposing of our rubbish have become essential.

But they will inevitably bring their own problems too.

The county council has drawn up a list of 66 potential sites for the 35 new waste recycling plants that will have to be built during the next decade including 24 locations in East Lancashire.

And it’s almost certain that there will be objections from people living near these sites.

Blackburn with Darwen council has already decided to build an incinerator instead of waste treatment plants and has six possible sites.

This option is opposed as a possible health risk by some. Such incinerators are described as being second only to nuclear power stations in their unpopularity.

Doing nothing is not an option because we will literally begin to become buried in rubbish and taxes will rocket.

But councils WILL need to show great care and sensitivity in the way they proceed.