RUPERT DOREY has hit back at an incinerator expert whose comments yesterday cast doubt on the technology behind the Rational Alternative waste proposal.

Mr Dorey, who is heading the alternative proposal, responded yesterday after consultant Jan Manders suggested Guernsey would be making itself a guinea pig for suspect technology if it accepted the Rational Alternative idea.

Mr Manders said Envikraft, the Danish company whose micro-incinerators have been backed in the alternative plan, was a small player in the European waste industry.

He warned the company only had one similar plant to that which is being suggested for Guernsey, at Senja in Norway, and it had suffered a ‘disastrous’ start.

But Mr Dorey (pictured) , whose group’s idea suggests two micro-incinerators and increased recycling instead of Public Services’ £93.5m. mass-burn option, moved to reassure people that the problems experienced at the Norwegian plant were nothing out of the ordinary for a new facility.

‘When the plant was first commissioned, unplanned shutdowns were occurring because of large steel components in the incoming refuse,’ he said.

Mr Dorey said that because Norwegians have to pay to dispose of certain items, including vehicle components, people were concealing objects in municipal waste.

‘These steel components were jamming the augers which transport refuse inside the plant, necessitating a shutdown to remove them,’ he said.