The operator in the Orange is using a giant grabber to pick up waste and feed it into the incinerator hopper.

Examples of things that should not go in the Wheelie bin!

Huge hopper to store wheelie bin waste before it goes into the incinerator. The Rubbish lorries reverse up to it and tip straight into it.

Some more metal retrieved from the incinerator after a burn

Even though older wheelie bins are labelled “landfill waste”, none of our wheelie bin waste in East Devon now goes into a hole in the ground. We still has to pay money to maintain landfill sites, but that is because even after they are closed, landfill sites need very careful management for decades, to avoid poisons leaching into the environment.

Instead, our wheelie bin waste now goes to the incineration plant on the Marsh Barton industrial estate, where it is incinerated and the heat captured and used to power electrical turbines. The incinerator at Marsh Barton takes “residual waste” (ie wheelie bin waste) from East Devon, Exeter, and Teignbridge.

The plant operates at about 800 to 850 C centigrade, so clearly it won’t dispose of things that don’t burn at that sort of temperature. During our visit we were shown the calcified remains of gas bottles, bicycle racks, and radiators. Clearly these do not burn at such a low temperature, and actually have a good value on the metals market!

The plea from the staff at the incinerator was please do not send them things that are too “wet”. The best heat comes from dry waste. So garden waste and kitchen scraps are a bit of a pain to them as they make the temperature in the turbine drop.

All sanitary waste- tampons, nappies, wet wipes etc, should go into the wheelie bin.

Again, because the plant generates power, this offsets the price of the service and helps to keep our council tax for this service as low as possible.