A rendering company hoping to construct the country's first meat and bonemeal (MBM) incinerator says it will complete a consultation process with the local community, before lodging its planning application with Meath County Council and licence application with the Environmental Protection Agency.
College Proteins, in Nobber, employs about 70 people, and if approved the MBM incinerator would create another 30 jobs.
It would have the capacity to deal with the 30,000 tonnes of MBM produced annually by the company and an additional 30,000 tonnes, giving it the potential to incinerate approximately half the 120,000 tonnes of MBM produced in the country every year.
The rendering industry is currently in crisis as the EU has directed that the Government stop subsidising the cost of exporting MBM for incineration. Most of it is incinerated in Germany, and College Proteins is one of a number of Irish companies interested in building an incinerator for MBM here.
"We are meeting on a weekly basis with the community in Nobber" said a company spokesman.
"We want to reassure them about incineration of MBM because there have been a lot of misconceptions and misinformation about it, especially on the Internet."
The company produced an information leaflet which was distributed in the Nobber and Kells areas, and it says it will continue meeting locals every week.
"We have always encouraged people to ring the company if they have any complaints, and issues raised at the meetings are dealt with at following meetings. We intend to continue with the meetings until all issues have been discussed," the spokesman added.
The alternative uses of MBM need to be looked at, according to a source in the Department of Agriculture.
In France and Switzerland it is used in the production of cement while in Germany, where there are large tracts of forest, it is spread on the forest floors.
The cost of disposing of MBM has dropped from €300 to €165 a tonne, but "we are still sending a potential source of energy abroad and paying for it to go abroad when it could be used in other ways here. As long as we continue to subsidise the industry there is no motivation for it to look at alternatives to incineration," the spokesman added.
College Proteins is expected to lodge its planning application in the next month, with its application for a waste licence made to the EPA shortly afterwards.