Apart from the fact that it makes sense to recycle rather than fill up landfill sites with perfectly good materials that can be used again, the UK is facing tough EU targets for recycling an increasing proportion of its household waste over the next 10 years. Also landfill sites, by their very nature are filling up. For instance the Beddingham site, which is used by Brighton & Hove will be full by 2008.

Onyx UK, which has a 25 year contract for waste management in Brighton & Hove, has prepared a planning application for a new facility adjacent to the existing refuse depot in Hollingdean on the site of an old abattoir.

The new facility will be a futuristic, state-of -the-art building which will sort all manner of refuse and accommodate its transfer to a variety of industrial uses. But the fact that it is in a residential district has caused alarm among residents fearful of increased traffic and its close proximity to a local school. The local MP and three councillors are opposed to the application and even the Green Party are opposed to this site.

The Green Party favour investigating Hollingbury Industrial Estate and others have suggested Hangleton Bottom, which was identified in the original Waste Local Plan as a suitable site but rejected by the Local Plan Inspector. Other sites on the edge of the city are protected by AONB designation or too close to the proposed National Park to please environmentalists. Meanwhile Onyx say that series of smaller sites across the city is not the most efficient way to deal with recycling

Brighton does not have a glut of suitable sites to choose from. This is a problem not only for waste recycling facilities but also employment uses and houses. In a city as geographically constrained as Brighton & Hove unpopular compromises may sometimes have to be made.