Our county areas must think about what possible WtE strategies are best for us.  This may depend on the landscape of the county or recycling targets or even how much contribution, people wish to make to help climate change.  Smaller plants for example, can be more desirable in rural areas, since, in general, they do not impact the landscape, as much as larger plants.

Once a county has identified which WtE strategies are suitable, they can be compared to see which ones are best and worth further investigation.  David has used a technique called multi-criteria analysis to do this.

This technique is a useful one since it allows the comparison of impacts that are very difficult to put a money value on.  Such impacts include air pollution or effect on a landscape or flexibility or even the social benefits of a community actually owning its own WtE plant.

This may seem like trying to compare apples with pears, but part of the MCA technique involves the use of “weightings”.

As long as everyone has knowledge of what scores and weights were used in the MCA technique – it is open and transparent for all to see.