Trial incineration is expected to start this month at the Energy Recovery Facility (ERF), on Forest Road, near Newport - a project which has been delayed by nearly two years.

The commissioning process for the specialist plant, which will burn landfill rubbish, creating energy for Isle of Wight homes, is expected to be completed in June - more than two years after it was supposed to start operating.

However, even without the new plant in full operation, the Isle of Wight Council says 99.73 per cent of contract waste was diverted from landfill in December.

In 2017, Councillor Michael Murwill, former council cabinet member for waste management, pledged to divert 90 per cent of waste from landfill and to recycle/compost 55 per cent of municipal solid waste, by April 1 2020.

In December, 53.5 per cent of waste was recycled or composted and 46 per cent was converted to waste-derived fuel, sent to an energy-from-waste plant on the mainland.

Recycling and composting rates are lower in winter, due to lower levels of green garden waste, said County Hall.

The ERF should have been completed in May 2019, but is now in the final stages of commissioning.

The Isle of Wight Council told the County Press the process was 'progressing well.'

The ERF will use non-recyclable rubbish to generate renewable electricity for up to 5000 houses and was given planning permission in March 2016.

The use of gasification technology was originally planned for the site but, in 2017, the Environment Agency allowed a switch to what is known as 'moving grate incineration technology'.

In January 2020 - according to 2018/19 data - Isle of Wight Council was 36th out of 345 local authority areas in England for its recycling rates.

Up from 51st place on the league table, 55.7 per cent of the Island's household waste was being reused, recycled or composted - well above the national average at that time of 45.1 per cent.

The 2019/2020 recycling figures are yet to be published in full by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), however we already know that the Isle of Wight is not in the top ten when it comes to household recycling and composting rates for that year.

According to information published by Defra on March 3, Three Rivers District Council, in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, was top of the list - recycling, reusing or composting 64.1 per cent of its waste in 2019/2020.

Guildford Borough Council in Surrey, was 10th, with a figure of 58.8 per cent.

When work started on the 44,000 tonnes per year ERF, in April 2017, a video of the work was released on YouTube.

Amey's waste collection and treatment contract with the Isle of Wight Council runs for 25 years and it is expected to operate the plant on behalf of County Hall.

According to letsrecycle.co.uk, in January 2021 Amey sold six of its sites, but retained the Isle of Wight.

Meanwhile, Isle of Wight Council said the financial risk of a construction delay at he ERF lies with Amey.

County Hall would not comment on whether legal action was being considered, or was underway, as a result of the delay.