DUBLIN CITY Council has predicted that the volume of municipal waste in the capital would increase by one-third to reach 4 million tonnes annually by 2025 “to be trucked to landfills around the country” in the absence of an incinerator at Poolbeg.
Responding yesterday to claims by the Green Party and the Irish Waste Management Association that the planned incinerator was too big at 600,000 tonnes per annum, it said there was “no space in Dublin’s landfills” for the city’s waste “until Poolbeg opens”.
The council noted that the 2009 national waste report, published by the Environmental Protection Agency, said Ireland’s waste infrastructure, including waste-to-energy plants such as Poolbeg, “remains underdeveloped”.
It also noted the agency’s conclusion that it would be “a challenge” to meet waste diversion and recovery targets under EU directives “if municipal waste generation increases with economic recovery and the necessary waste infrastructure is not in place”.
A spokesman for Covanta, the council’s US partners in the Poolbeg project, said the 8 per cent fall in Dublin’s municipal waste in 2009, as reported by the agency “is exactly what was predicted by Covanta last year [and] comes as no surprise”.
He said Covanta’s business case with the Dublin authorities “is based on a reduction in the amount of waste being produced by individual households and an increase in the amount of recycling.” But the waste management association, which represents most private sector waste companies, insisted that the agency’s report “confirms that the proposed Poolbeg incinerator is seriously oversized relative to the Dublin region waste market”.
Spokesman Brendan Keane said the latest data highlighted “significant errors” made by the ESRI in its waste reports for Dublin City Council by predicting waste growth for 2008 and 2009 when, “in reality, waste levels plummeted by more than 13 per cent”.
This meant the local authorities “do not have enough waste for a 600,000-tonne incinerator at Poolbeg” and that “the writing is on the wall” for the project, which could expose taxpayers to up to €350 million in penalty payments.
“Waste levels are falling, recovery rates are rising and local authorities are exiting the waste market. Incineration is part of the solution to Ireland’s management of waste, but the Poolbeg project should be resized to approximately 300,000 tonnes per annum,” Mr Keane said.
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
Showing posts with label dublin waste planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dublin waste planning. Show all posts
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
Gormley to move policy away from incineration
WASTE POLICIES which would make large incinerators such as the facility under construction at Poolbeg in Dublin unviable have been published by Minister for the Environment John Gormley.
The Draft National Waste Policy, released for public consultation yesterday, states as its aim a move away from landfill and “mass-burn incineration” towards recycling and mechanical biological treatment by using “all appropriate legislative and fiscal measures”.
The document reiterates the intention, already sanctioned by Government, to introduce a levy on incineration, but goes further by proposing punitive fines for local authorities who do not prevent waste from going to landfill or incinerator sites.
It also proposes moving control of waste regulation, licensing and enforcement from local authorities to a national agency, and scrapping regional waste-management plans in favour of national plans devised by the minister of the day.
Mr Gormley announced his intention to change national waste policy in 2007 on the day An Bord Pleanála granted permission to Dublin City Council for the 600,000-tonne capacity incinerator at Poolbeg.
He later commissioned environmental consultants Eunomia to conduct an International Review of Waste Management Policy. The draft waste policy is based on this review.
Speaking on the publication of the document yesterday, Mr Gormley said the policies were his vision of sustainable waste management, which recognised waste was a resource that could create jobs – “not a problem that has to be buried or burned”. The Poolbeg incinerator was “totally incompatible with this policy”, he said. In a statement last night, apparently showing unity within the Government on the issue, Taoiseach Brian Cowen welcomed the draft policy, saying it was “a welcome step in the process of deciding on a credible and practical policy for the development of a sustainable waste management sector for the next decade and beyond”.
The policy would prevent local authorities from entering into contracts for disposal of waste which they did not directly control.
Addressing accusations that he was withholding a foreshore licence from the incinerator, Mr Gormley said the application was being dealt with in the normal way. “It’s clear to me, frankly, that a PR campaign has been launched against myself.”
Mr Gormley also made reference to a ruling this week by the Competition Authority that the Poolbeg project was not in breach of competition law. The ruling was “not a clean bill of health” for the facility, and the authority had said there were issues it intended to investigate further. Legislation for the incineration levy has been well flagged and is now at draft stage. However, the document introduces a new financial constraint on “feeding” the incinerator through proposing that local authorities would be fined €50 per tonne of residual waste (ie waste that must be landfilled or incinerated) above set targets for households in their area.
The measures most likely to concern local authorities on a national level would be the transfer of control for waste regulation to a “single nationally administered arrangement” and the transfer of responsibility for waste planning to the Minister.
Dublin City Council yesterday said it would study the Minister’s policy, but that the Poolbeg contract was entered into in line with current Government waste policy and the current Regional Waste Management Plan. “Any proposal which might alter that policy at this stage could have serious repercussions for the Dublin region and thereby the State,” it said.
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
The Draft National Waste Policy, released for public consultation yesterday, states as its aim a move away from landfill and “mass-burn incineration” towards recycling and mechanical biological treatment by using “all appropriate legislative and fiscal measures”.
The document reiterates the intention, already sanctioned by Government, to introduce a levy on incineration, but goes further by proposing punitive fines for local authorities who do not prevent waste from going to landfill or incinerator sites.
It also proposes moving control of waste regulation, licensing and enforcement from local authorities to a national agency, and scrapping regional waste-management plans in favour of national plans devised by the minister of the day.
Mr Gormley announced his intention to change national waste policy in 2007 on the day An Bord Pleanála granted permission to Dublin City Council for the 600,000-tonne capacity incinerator at Poolbeg.
He later commissioned environmental consultants Eunomia to conduct an International Review of Waste Management Policy. The draft waste policy is based on this review.
Speaking on the publication of the document yesterday, Mr Gormley said the policies were his vision of sustainable waste management, which recognised waste was a resource that could create jobs – “not a problem that has to be buried or burned”. The Poolbeg incinerator was “totally incompatible with this policy”, he said. In a statement last night, apparently showing unity within the Government on the issue, Taoiseach Brian Cowen welcomed the draft policy, saying it was “a welcome step in the process of deciding on a credible and practical policy for the development of a sustainable waste management sector for the next decade and beyond”.
The policy would prevent local authorities from entering into contracts for disposal of waste which they did not directly control.
Addressing accusations that he was withholding a foreshore licence from the incinerator, Mr Gormley said the application was being dealt with in the normal way. “It’s clear to me, frankly, that a PR campaign has been launched against myself.”
Mr Gormley also made reference to a ruling this week by the Competition Authority that the Poolbeg project was not in breach of competition law. The ruling was “not a clean bill of health” for the facility, and the authority had said there were issues it intended to investigate further. Legislation for the incineration levy has been well flagged and is now at draft stage. However, the document introduces a new financial constraint on “feeding” the incinerator through proposing that local authorities would be fined €50 per tonne of residual waste (ie waste that must be landfilled or incinerated) above set targets for households in their area.
The measures most likely to concern local authorities on a national level would be the transfer of control for waste regulation to a “single nationally administered arrangement” and the transfer of responsibility for waste planning to the Minister.
Dublin City Council yesterday said it would study the Minister’s policy, but that the Poolbeg contract was entered into in line with current Government waste policy and the current Regional Waste Management Plan. “Any proposal which might alter that policy at this stage could have serious repercussions for the Dublin region and thereby the State,” it said.
Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
Thursday, 31 December 2009
Verdict is warning to council on incinerator plan - Gormley
The High Court judgment that found Dublin City Council’s attempts to change the household bin collection system were anti-competitive has been welcomed by Minister for the Environment John Gormley.
Mr Gormley said that, in light of the decision, the council would be digging itself into “deeper trouble” by going ahead with building the 600,000-tonne incinerator at Poolbeg.
However, the council said the judgment would not stop it from proceeding with the waste-to-energy facility, on which construction began last week.
Mr Justice Liam McKechnie found that the council abused its dominant position in the capital’s waste market, and said the planned Poolbeg incinerator was “not free from uncertainty”.
Private waste collection firms - Greenstar and Panda - took cases against the decision to change the waste management permit system to give the four Dublin local authorities more control over who collects waste in the city.
The council decided in 2008 to change the Dublin Region Waste Management Plan to allow it to decide on the collection of household waste - either through providing its own collection service or tendering for a contractor. This change, if implemented, would have stopped private companies from competitively offering their services to households.
Mr Justice McKechnie said Panda was “entitled to relief” - adding that Greenstar, which had undertaken a separate but linked case, “will also succeed” against the council.
Mr Gormley said he would study the details of the court’s decision, but added that it had clear implications for the future of the Poolbeg plant. “On the face of it, it bears out the concerns I have been expressing directly to Dublin City Council and publicly since I took office. The clear message from the courts is that Dublin City Council has tried to act outside its powers.”
The council needed to take stock of the court decision, he said.
“My door is always open if they wish to engage with my department on plotting a way forward. If they decide to disregard the implications of this judgment and proceed with the incinerator as planned, they will only dig themselves into deeper trouble.”
The Irish Waste Management Association (IWMA) said the council had being trying to “seize control of waste and kill off competition” in order to make the Poolbeg incinerator viable.
“The aim was clear - Dublin City Council, which is currently developing one of the largest incinerators in Europe at Poolbeg, needs to have total control of waste, so that it has enough fuel to feed this grossly oversized facility for the next 25 years,” IWMA spokesman Brendan Keane said.
Greenstar chief executive Neil Parkinson said the judgment “throws a spanner in the works” of the council’s attempts to control the waste market in Dublin.
“[The council] has guaranteed to supply the waste to the grossly oversized incinerator it is seeking to develop jointly with Covanta in Poolbeg and it will face penalties if it does not deliver the volume of waste contracted. With today’s ruling, it is becoming clear that, unfortunately, it is the Irish taxpayer who will once again have to underwrite a bad deal.”
The council said it needed to consult its legal advisers before commenting on the judgment, but in a statement said it still intended to go ahead with the incinerator.
The Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
Mr Gormley said that, in light of the decision, the council would be digging itself into “deeper trouble” by going ahead with building the 600,000-tonne incinerator at Poolbeg.
However, the council said the judgment would not stop it from proceeding with the waste-to-energy facility, on which construction began last week.
Mr Justice Liam McKechnie found that the council abused its dominant position in the capital’s waste market, and said the planned Poolbeg incinerator was “not free from uncertainty”.
Private waste collection firms - Greenstar and Panda - took cases against the decision to change the waste management permit system to give the four Dublin local authorities more control over who collects waste in the city.
The council decided in 2008 to change the Dublin Region Waste Management Plan to allow it to decide on the collection of household waste - either through providing its own collection service or tendering for a contractor. This change, if implemented, would have stopped private companies from competitively offering their services to households.
Mr Justice McKechnie said Panda was “entitled to relief” - adding that Greenstar, which had undertaken a separate but linked case, “will also succeed” against the council.
Mr Gormley said he would study the details of the court’s decision, but added that it had clear implications for the future of the Poolbeg plant. “On the face of it, it bears out the concerns I have been expressing directly to Dublin City Council and publicly since I took office. The clear message from the courts is that Dublin City Council has tried to act outside its powers.”
The council needed to take stock of the court decision, he said.
“My door is always open if they wish to engage with my department on plotting a way forward. If they decide to disregard the implications of this judgment and proceed with the incinerator as planned, they will only dig themselves into deeper trouble.”
The Irish Waste Management Association (IWMA) said the council had being trying to “seize control of waste and kill off competition” in order to make the Poolbeg incinerator viable.
“The aim was clear - Dublin City Council, which is currently developing one of the largest incinerators in Europe at Poolbeg, needs to have total control of waste, so that it has enough fuel to feed this grossly oversized facility for the next 25 years,” IWMA spokesman Brendan Keane said.
Greenstar chief executive Neil Parkinson said the judgment “throws a spanner in the works” of the council’s attempts to control the waste market in Dublin.
“[The council] has guaranteed to supply the waste to the grossly oversized incinerator it is seeking to develop jointly with Covanta in Poolbeg and it will face penalties if it does not deliver the volume of waste contracted. With today’s ruling, it is becoming clear that, unfortunately, it is the Irish taxpayer who will once again have to underwrite a bad deal.”
The council said it needed to consult its legal advisers before commenting on the judgment, but in a statement said it still intended to go ahead with the incinerator.
The Irish Times
www.buckplanning.ie
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