incinerators and is urging the United Kingdom to build more of them, according to a London-based insurance publication.

"It makes us feel like we are doing the right thing,'' Permanent Secretary for the Environment Ministry Dr. James Burnett-Herkes said of the commission's finding, as reported in Risk Update.

But staunch opponent of the Tynes Bay incinerator, Independent MP Mr. Stuart Hayward, said the Island should be wary of following any British recommendations concerning the environment.

Britain's attitude towards waste may not be the healthiest to adopt, Mr.

Hayward said, noting the Island's parent country used to have a reputation for being the "dirty old man of Europe''.

"I'm not sure what is happening in Britain should be a model for us to adopt -- they have rarely been credited for high environmental standards,'' he said.

Mr. Hayward also pointed out that while Britain was encouraging waste incinerators, other countries such as Canada were banning them.

But Environment Minister the Hon. Gerald Simons said: "Given our terrible shortage of land, continued use of the Pembroke Dump is simply not practical.'' He said Bermuda's incinerator would meet "the highest emissions and safety standards in the world'', with Government following the example of European countries who use incineration, and not so much Britain.

He added Bermuda was clearly ahead of Britain when it came to incineration as the principal way of dealing with waste.

However, Mr. Hayward said Government had failed to place recycling high enough in its waste management scheme, which sees the closure of Pembroke Dump and opening early next year of a mass-burn household waste incinerator at Tynes Bay.

If Government had concentrated more on recycling as a way of controlling waste, a much smaller incinerator could have been built, he claimed.

"The recycling space we have is now proving inadequate,'' he added.

The August edition of Britain's prestigious Risk Update magazine says the 17th report of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution recommends that the UK Department of the Environment (DoE) should give a "high priority'' to a "national waste management strategy in which incineration with energy recovery would have an important place.'' Only around seven percent of Britain's municipal waste is incinerated each year, the rest being predominantly disposed of to landfill, the magazine said.

The commission's report further noted that if new incinerators were not built soon, the amount would get even smaller.

According to the magazine, which says pollution insurance is one of the hardest types to get, a number of the 30 existing incinerators in Britain were expected to close down because of their inability to meet tough new UK emissions standards by the deadline of December 1996.

It also says the commission's report notes that the amount of municipal waste incinerated in Britain is "substantially lower'' than in other developed countries.

And those countries also place much greater emphasis on energy recovery than Britain. Of the 30 municipal incinerators in the UK, only five recover energy.

Dr. Burnett Herkes said the Tynes Bay incinerator would recover enough energy to run the entire plant and sell off to the Belco electricity grid.