Plans to build an incinerator in the Ouse valley should be dropped, says Lewes Labour Party.

It believes anaerobic digestion, which turns waste into compost, could deal with a major portion of waste planners propose to burn in an incinerator in Newhaven.

Waste plans in East Sussex and Brighton and Hove depend heavily on two large burners, at North Quay, Newhaven, and Mountfield Mine, near Robertsbridge.

The plans will go out for consultation next month after county councillors ended months of deadlock two weeks ago and backed building an incinerator.

The anaerobic digestion system uses bacteria in an oxygen-free silo to break down organic household waste.

Most large sewage treatment works employ a similar system, using by-product methane and carbon dioxide gas for heat and power.

Southampton, which has seen a similar controversy about incineration as Sussex, hopes to deal with 75,000 tonnes of waste a year in digestors - nine per cent of household waste produced in Hampshire.

Dr Richard Black, Lewes Labour Party's environment spokes-man, said: "Southampton's experience shows that anaerobic digestion could represent a much more healthy, green and cost-effective proposal than incineration."

But Labour-controlled Brighton and Hove Council supports building a burner at Newhaven. Labour county councillors also backed the Newhaven site.

Juli Johnson, of the anti-incinerator pressure group Defenders of the Ouse Valley and Estuary, said there were already 53 operational anaerobic digestors in Europe.

She said the system could not deal with all waste but could avoid some burning.