COUNTY HALL says it is ready to begin the process of acquiring new technology to dispose safely of the county's residual household waste.

But Friends of the Earth issued an early warning that a big majority of Oxfordshire people oppose the incineration option.

Oxfordshire County Council is expected to shortly place an advertisement in the Official Journal of the European Union to formally begin a procurement process.

The council says it remains "neutral" about the best technology to go for to reduce the amount of waste going into landfill. It says it will consider all proposed tenders on their merits.

There are a range of technologies that can treat biodegradable wastes so that they need not be landfilled, and which also produce a usable product such as electricity, compost or gas.

If Oxfordshire fails to reduce waste sent to landfill it could face fines of £150 for each tonne over the limit. This could lead to a fine of £3m in 2009-10 and increased fines thereafter.

The county council and district councils are now looking at alternatives that might reduce use of landfill between now and 2009.

These include collecting of food waste separately (or with garden wastes) so that it can be sent to an advanced composting process known as 'in-vessel'.

Andrew Wood, of Oxford Friends of the Earth, claimed the county council's own survey showed strong opposition to the controversial option of burning waste in incinerators.

He said: "The results of the five-week consultation this summer, which included a survey, showed that of the 891 replies to the survey, there were 430 opposed to burning Oxfordshire's future waste in an incinerator, while only 24 supported it. Better recycling provision was also strongly supported."