Could incinerators reduce our waste glut and generate clean energy?

With its acrid, billowing black smoke that caused scratchy throats and eyes as rubbish burned in the grate, the old backyard incinerator has become a relic.

How a waste to energy plant proposed for Melbourne's western
suburbs by upper house Labor MP Cesar Melhem could look.

But could a similar process, albeit on a much larger scale, be an environmentally friendly solution to both our glut of waste and problems with our energy supply?

It’s an idea that’s gaining traction in Australia at various levels of government – although not everyone agrees.

As councils wrestle with increasing amounts of waste going to landfill after China restricted the importation of recyclables, and state and federal ministers feud over energy supplies, a solution to both these vexed issues can’t come quickly enough.

Read Debbie Cuthbertson’s story in The Age - “Could incinerators reduce our waste glut and generate clean energy?”

‘It's very serious': Australia's farmers pensive after a long, dry winter.

For the next two weeks, Phillip Alcorn will have his eyes glued to the sky, and the weather forecast.

Phillip Alcorn in a field of canola on his property near Harden. 

If there is no rain in the next two weeks, the Harden farmer's canola crop will be a write-off. 

"It's very serious," says Mr Alcorn, who has been farming for 25 years in the South West Slopes region of New South Wales. 

"This is up in the top couple of years for toughness," he says. "That is a direct impact of the dry," he says. 

Read Judith Ireland’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “‘It's very serious': Australia's farmers pensive after a long, dry winter.”