A HOST of waste incinerators is planned for regional centres throughout the country -- despite a warning from the Environment Minister that there will be substantial over-capacity in the sector.
Waste operators will be asked to submit plans to build the first household waste incinerator outside the Greater Dublin Area in September.
Despite opposition from Environment Minister John Gormley to incineration, five local authorities in the south-east will ask companies to submit expressions of interest.
The councils are looking at building a plant with a capacity to treat 170,000 tonnes of household waste in the region.
And local authorities have identified a need to build another four facilities across the country with a combined capacity to treat 750,000 tonnes of waste.
Mr Gormley wants to change government policy, but one local authority source said: "The waste that can't be recycled has to go somewhere. We have to work in the here and now."
Two plants are already approved for Leinster -- one in Dublin with a capacity of 600,000 tonnes and a second in Co Meath with a capacity of 200,000.
If the four other projects are approved, they will add 750,000 tonnes of capacity -- enough to process over 1.5 million tonnes of waste each year.
The move comes despite Mr Gormley ordering a comprehensive review of waste policy to find alternatives.
Composting
The minister has previously said that with recycling, waste minimisation, composting and other treatment methods, there would be a "very substantial over-capacity" for incineration.
He predicted that by 2016, 400,000 tonnes of waste would require thermal treatment.
But industry sources say that until the alternatives are identified and approved, local authorities have to make plans to dispose of household waste through other means apart from landfill, or Ireland will face hefty fines from the EU.
The EU Landfill Directive requires that just under one million tonnes of waste can be sent to landfill by 2010.
In 2006, the last year for which figures are available, 1.4 million tonnes was dumped.
If current trends continue, Ireland will be fined if it fails to meet the target.
"All the regions are in a difficulty since John Gormley came into office," one local authority source said yesterday. "Current government policy is waste to energy, and thermal treatment is okay as long as you generate heat and power from it.
"John Gormley is trying to change government policy and initiating a review. In the meantime, he has told regional authorities not to get into contracts until the review is complete.
"There's very few new landfills being opened, and the waste that can't be recycled has to go somewhere.
"We can't work on the basis that government policy might change. We have to work in the here and now, and that is that thermal treatment is government policy."
Proposals for an incinerator in the south-east will be made by local authorities in Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Waterford city and county, and Wexford.
Other plants are proposed in Connacht to deal with 175,000 tonnes a year; a second plant for the south-east to treat 170,000 tonnes; another to serve Limerick, Clare and Kerry for 200,000 tonnes; and the last in the Midlands for 150,000 tonnes.
Paul Melia
Irish Independent
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