Anti-landfill protests and a potential mountain of agricultural waste arising from the BSE crisis have done nothing to convince the New Ross-based Research and Information Group that thermal treatment is an unavoidable option.
The group claims that incineration is not just a threat to the nation's health, it is also a bad choice in economic terms. "The more we've looked at it the more we realise that, if there was never a health risk, incineration is not the solution," says group member Mr Joe Bridges.
A model for what Ireland could be like, says the group, can be found in Nova Scotia, where a five-year campaign to divert 50 per cent of waste from landfills and incineration has been successfully completed.
Nova Scotia has an incinerator but will not be replacing it at the end of its life. Initiatives include the collection of organic waste and recyclable materials from every household and the banning of a range of valuable materials from landfills. The Canadian province is to extend the list of banned items.
"It is an island with similar geography to ourselves. The fact they're on the periphery is relevant because we're often told we're too far from centres of population for recycling to be economically possible," says Mr Bridges.
Supporters of incineration argue that Irish people have shown no inclination to embrace large-scale recycling, reuse and minimisation of waste. And we don't have time to wait for such long-term solutions. The same argument, the group says, was made about Nova Scotia, which the rest of Canada views as an island of "unsophisticated fishermen" who would not change established habits.
Incineration is not the "quick fix" many believe it to be, the group argues. Consultants acting for several regional authorities have said it would take seven years to have an incinerator up and running, says Mr Bridges.
Yet there was a danger the BSE issue would be used as a Trojan horse by supporters of thermal treatment to have it accepted by the public.
Mr Bridges says we should regard waste as a resource to be used in different ways "instead of seeking a big enough hole in the ground or a big enough furnace to get rid of it. In that respect, incineration allows us to continue the bad habits we've acquired over the past 20 years."
In Nova Scotia, he points out, 3,000 jobs were created as a result of the recycling programme.
Even if it were available tomorrow, thermal treatment would be an unsafe way to dispose of BSE carcasses, according to Dr Michael Prendergast, another group member.
He points to a report in the Observer newspaper last October that BSE-infected ash is escaping from incinerators burning slaughtered cattle.
Dr Prendergast says a new bio-waste treatment and disposal system, known as the WR2 process, developed in the US and being tested in Scotland, has the potential to be a safe way of disposing of BSE-contaminated tissue.
In the meantime, the only option is to store potentially infectious material. But as long as incineration remains an option, the group argues, the incentive to pursue more environmentally friendly methods of waste management will be diminished.
