Tallow will be burned until December 2005

Teesside-based power firm SembCorp has been given permission to burn tallow to generate electricity.

There had been concerns about how environmentally friendly the process would be.

But the Environment Agency reassured residents near SembCorp's Wilton plant the process is more efficient than using traditional fossil fuels.

The agency has given the company the go ahead to burn tallow until December 2005.

A drop-in session was being held on Wednesday to discuss the issue with the public.

Environment Agency spokesman David Tartlin said: "There is a benefit there in terms of local air quality and people's health.

"You can look at this as a new way of disposing of a particular waste that has been a problem for the government in terms of storing it.

"The good thing about tallow is it has very good fuel properties, so if you burn it you can recover the energy in terms of steam or electricity.

"So environmentally, burning it is a better way of disposing of it than landfill."

SembCorp will burn about 100,00 tonnes of tallow a year, which will be transported to Teesside by road.

The tallow is from cattle culled as part of the 30-month scheme, put in place by the then Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food in 1996 to support the beef market in the UK in the wake of the BSE outbreak.