Onyx UK chief executive Cyrille du Peloux has told politicians and industry figures that energy from waste is an essential technology in the UK's battle to meet its landfill targets.
Speaking at the Associated Parliamentary Sustainable Waste Group's first meeting with the new parliament last week, du Peloux said: "Energy from waste technology is modern, proven and effective, and has a strong role to play in UK waste management."
According to Onyx projections, the UK can reach a national recycling rate of 33% by 2015.
A realistic projection, based on current and planned infrastructure, was that waste incineration could increase to 19.6% of municipal waste by 2015.
This mix of recycling, landfill and incineration would still leave 7.1 million tonnes of municipal waste without a disposal option.
Du Peloux said additional technology additional infrastructure needed to be in place to deal with this shortfall warned the group that there was no miracle technology lurking in the wings for waste management.
He added: "In order for the UK to catch up on putting the infrastructure in place that is needed to deal with the country's waste challenges, more long term private funding initiatives are required."