The Government has made little progress towards a national waste policy or on the difficult issue of incineration, according to the Irish Business and Employers' Confederation. It has also described incineration as a necessary part of a comprehensive policy on handling waste.
IBEC yesterday published a pro-incineration policy document. It strongly stressed, however, that "thermal treatment" should only represent part of a wider approach, including recycling and waste reduction, as a way to lessen dependence on landfill.
There is powerful local opposition against proposed incinerators in a number of regional locations. There are particularly well organised campaigns in Cos Meath, Cork and Tipperary, where incinerators are either planned or approved. An incinerator for the south-east has also been agreed but awaits agreement on a location.
"We don't feel you can set aside one of the solutions and still deal with the problem," said Mr Jim Killeen, chairman of IBEC's environment policy committee. There were six proposals in place for waste incinerators, he said, but IBEC believed there was a lack of national co-ordination on the issue. "We think there is a gap and we see a need for it to be addressed," Mr Killeen said.
IBEC had published a document on waste management in April 2000, but little progress had been made over the past 2½ years in formulating a national policy, he said. "We didn't see a strong hand but now we need to knit the whole thing together," he said, adding: "What if there had been no road-building for 2½ years?"
Waste policy and incineration had become part of the partnership negotiations, said Mr Brendan Butler, IBEC's director of enterprise.
The new policy document, Thermal Treatment/Incineration of Wastes, looks specifically at issues related to incineration. "The core issue we wanted to get across is we need a multifaceted approach," Mr Killeen said. It should favour waste prevention, minimisation, reuse, recycling and thermal treatment linked to energy recovery (producing electricity from incinerating waste) over disposal to landfill.
"All waste proposals are controversial, and waste incineration projects are the most controversial," Mr Killeen said. It would become increasingly difficult, however, to continue dumping 91 per cent of our national waste into landfill, given that the number of landfills had fallen from 130 to 50 over the past five years. Even recycling at the highest level would not take enough waste out of the system to avoid a mixed approach that included incineration.
International studies had shown that properly run incineration units were not a threat to the environment or to people, according to IBEC.
Dr Ruth McGrath of VOICE, the Irish environmental group, said incineration would not reduce costs to business. "Incineration would be equally expensive. They are not going to escape payment for dealing with waste by that method," she said.
She said detailed costings were not being done to show incineration was needed, and she agreed with the IBEC position that more co-ordination from Government was necessary. A national approach was required, including a waste management authority.