The waste management group insist incineration is a proven technology in many countries¨, writes Ciarán Hancock

JOHN AHERN was a happy man this week. After years of protracted planning and legal battles the Indaver Ireland boss is finally able to plan with certainty on building a €130 million waste incinerator in Carranstown, Co Meath.

On Tuesday, Flemish waste management group Indaver announced its plans to begin construction next month on the controversial plant, which will handle 200,000 tonnes of municipal waste from around the northeast of the country and employ 60 workers.

Sitting in a spartan office at Indavar's solvent waste facility in Dublin Port, with the hum of a large pump for background noise, Ahern declares it to have been a great day.

"Today is probably the first day that Indaver can say they are getting a return here . . . it's been a long road."

It has also been an expensive one - Ahern estimates that the company has spent €20 million to date, buying land and on adviser fees. The legal bill alone amounts to some €2 million, he says.

There will be little sympathy in the environs of Carranstown, which is situated close to the village of Duleek.

This will be Ireland's first incinerator. It will burn the waste that would previously have been sent to landfill and will produce enough electricity to power the waste plant and about 20,000 homes in the area.

Incinerators are an untried and untested technology in Ireland and many people here remain to be convinced about their efficacy.

Locals fought long and hard to resist the project, arguing that it could have a detrimental effect on their health and would also bring large volumes of traffic to the area.

Indaver had to await two decisions from An Bord Pleanála and fight its corner in the High Court and Supreme Court before getting the green light for its incinerator in Meath.

Ahern argues that incineration is a proven technology, used widely and successfully in many continental European countries.

"Switzerland has 29 incinerators," he argues. "If Ireland is getting it wrong then we're in good company. Besides, if we do nothing, then we'll just continue sending waste to landfill. That isn't sustainable."

He also highlights the fact that Ireland exports practically all of its hazardous and recycled waste. The European Commission would like to see member states become self sufficient in managing their waste and incinerators will be necessary to help Ireland achieve this, he argues.

Moreover, we need to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill if Ireland is to meet its carbon emissions reduction targets.

Ahern, a chemical engineer by training, is also keen to counter the view that the plant will involve back-breaking labour that will result in ash and soot being pumped out a chimney into the atmosphere. "There'll be nobody shovelling waste into a furnace," he says. "This will be highly automated . . . there'll be just three people on the night shift."

The bulldozers will move on site in August and if all goes to plan, the facility should open in January 2011.

That's providing locals or environmental warriors don't decide to chain themselves to the front gates or throw themselves in front of the bulldozers.

"We're always prepared but we hope that doesn't happen," he says.

Based in the Flemish-speaking part of Belgium, Indaver operates waste management facilities across Europe, handling about 1.9 million tonnes of rubbish each year.

Group turnover was €225 million in 2007 and it employs 700 staff. Some 120 of those are in Ireland.

Indaver bought into the Irish market in 1998, acquiring a local company called Minchem from Desmond Green for £20 million.

"It was a great price, we sold it well," says Ahern, who worked for Minchem at the time.

Since then, Indaver's focus has been on building waste management facilities here to maximise its return.

"They bought a management team that believed they could get out and build infrastructure and get a return on that investment," Ahern says.

In the interim, some €4 million was spent on a solvent waste plant in Dublin Port but the big picture was always about incinerators, which the company has been trying to progress since 2000.

In addition to Carranstown, Indaver is also seeking to open a 200,000 tonne municipal and hazardous waste facility in Ringaskiddy, Co Cork. It will cost some €150 million to build.

Permission for the hazardous facility has already been granted but planning for the municipal element has yet to be secured. Ahern reckons Ringaskiddy will be about two years behind the Meath plant.

This could be wishful thinking. Locals in Ringaskiddy are battle hardened after many years of taking on industries in the area.

"We are presuming that we'll get to the end of the process in Cork," Ahern said. "We would prefer to do the two together."

He argues that this facility is crucial for Cork. "Sixty per cent of Ireland's hazardous waste comes from Cork," he says. "Where do they want it to go?"

The stakes are high. Ahern freely admits that its incinerator in Meath is projected to make a profit of €7.5 million a year on turnover of about €30 million.

About half the finance for the project has been borrowed. Ringaskiddy would produce a similar surplus.

Both would have a lifespan of up to 25 years, although with continual investment that time frame could be lengthened considerably.

If both are built, Ahern estimates that Indavar's combined Irish turnover would be €100 million or more, including its existing businesses here.

The firm's Irish division had a difficult 2007. Turnover declined to some €33 million from €36 million following the loss of a large contract with a pharmaceutical group and associated restructuring costs.

Its profit fell to some €500,000 from €1.8 million in 2006.

This year's figures will tell a different story, helped in part by Indaver's acquisition here last year of Cedar Integrated Waste.

"Turnover should be back up to €38 million this year with profits of €1.5 million," Ahern said. At present, there are plans for about half a dozen incinerators on the drawing board here. Indaver will have first-mover advantage and Ahern, perhaps not surprisingly, feels that not all of these high-tech waste-burning plants will be required.

"The Minister [Minister for the Environment John Gormley] seems to be of the view that we don't need that many and I would have some sympathy with that," he says.

"I think three or four would probably be about right."