'Inescapable' need for waste incineration, consultant says

Incineration is the inescapable answer to Ireland's waste management problems, and not an "unviable" process as suggested by Minister for the Environment John Gormley, it was claimed yesterday.

PJ Rudden, a leading consultant on regional waste management plans, said looming European Union fines can be avoided if existing waste management plans are allowed to proceed.

Speaking after an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report found the volume of waste going to landfill was increasing - and that Ireland was facing EU fines by 2010 as a result - Mr Rudden said Ireland's only difficulty was with implementation of its waste management plans.

Mr Rudden, who has spent more than a decade advising local authorities on most of the State's regional waste management plans, welcomed the EPA report, which also showed significant increases in recycling.

But he said that even with recycling rates as high as 40 per cent in Dublin in 2006, the report's conclusion that Ireland must reduce landfill by 450,000 tonnes a year by 2010 was glaring.

He said that while mechanical and biological treatment advocated by Mr Gormley had a place in the waste hierarchy, it would not solve this problem and would "only result in more waste going to landfill".

He maintained the three thermal treatment plants currently being progressed would be able to handle up to one million tonnes of waste per year, removing what the EPA referred to as the "significant danger" of fines from the EU under the waste management directive.

He said thermal treatment was the "absolutely inescapable" conclusion from the EPA report, "and not that it is unviable".

Mr Rudden also said other aspects of current waste management plans would be required and he regretted there had been little recent progress on new facilities for biodegradable waste, the development of local markets for recyclable goods and further swap centres and websites.

The report, published yesterday, found biodegradable waste sent to landfill rose by 9 per cent to 1.4 million tonnes in 2006.