Local authority leaders hit back yesterday at accusations from the green lobby that a new generation of waste incinerators would damage the environment.

Councils believe incinerators, especially those that produce energy as well as burning waste, have a role to play, but Friends of the Earth insist that recycling and waste reduction should take precedence.

Councillor Pat Watters, president of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, said: "It is just plain wrong to simplify this argument down to incinerators versus recycling. We need a sensible mix of waste reduction measures, recycling and energy from waste."

In March, the outgoing government decided to award £48m to councils to produce energy from waste by incinerating rubbish that cannot be recycled.

North and South Lanarkshire councils received £8.4m and a group of east coast authorities received £12.6m. Environmental campaigners described any move to incineration as a backward step but there has been no sign of any change in policy from the SNP administration.

Friends of the Earth policy director Stuart Hay said yesterday: "We would rather see waste prevention, reuse of products and recycling because it saves more energy, it saves the waste of resources and you don't end up with a pile of toxic ash.

"To rush to incineration is the worst of both worlds. Not only are we creating all this excess packaging but people are having to see it burnt on their doorstep."

But the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency says the next generation of incinerators are so clean that one of them would take more than a century to produce as much of the poisonous chemical dioxin as a single major firework display.

John Ferguson, the agency's manager of waste strategy, said: "High levels of recycling and incineration are not necessarily mutually exclusive. In 1990, 55% of dioxins in the UK came from incineration, now it is 0.2%.

"Dioxin levels are a 10th of what was allowed even 10 years ago and you are seeing a stricter and stricter regime of regulatory powers."

Mr Watters said: "On its own, recycling would struggle to meet European targets in 2014 and 2020, so in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avoid European and domestic financial penalties it will be necessary to find alternatives to landfill.

"Generating energy from waste is just one way of doing this. It is a safe, tried and tested way to deal with waste that cannot be recycled, and is used across Europe."

Green MSP Robin Harper said: "Using the sky as a landfill site is not the answer to our waste problem.

"Incinerators, especially if operated as private businesses, will be hungry for as much rubbish to burn as possible to make them profitable. That sends entirely the wrong signal.

"The SNP environment minister has signalled an interest in our policy of a zero waste strategy' for Scotland. He now has the opportunity to show he is committed to it."