When people in Brighton and Hove think of incineration, they often envisage a dirty burner belching black and polluted smoke over a wide area.

Such an incinerator existed at Leighton Road in Hove for many years burning domestic and commercial rubbish.

But the sort of incinerator now being considered for East Sussex, serving much of the county, including Brighton and Hove, would be entirely different.

Councillors were given an idea of what it could be like when they went to Rouen, the main town in Normandy. What they saw was a machine capable of reducing rubbish to small piles of ash while producing electricity for the neighbourhood.

The emissions are so small they are probably less than is produced by heavy traffic in a busy city such as Brighton and Hove. Everything possible is being done to keep them as low as possible. The people of Rouen have welcomed their state-of-the-art burner.

Low emission does not mean no emissions and there is some risk with any plant like this. The question for the two councils is whether it's a risk worth taking.

The answer has to be Yes in the short and medium term since tips are almost full and recycling will not fill the gap for many years if at all.

Let no one forget that tips can be toxic and that recycling, while to be encouraged, also involves a factory process to make sure that glass, paper and other materials can be used again.