An application has been lodged for a dump for toxic ash in north Dublin.
Management firm Murphy Environmental Hollywood (MEHL) has applied for a rapid planning assessment under strategic infrastructure rules. More than 60 jobs could be created if the north Dublin facility gets permission to treat hazardous material from the country’s two incinerators.
Developers say the dump at MEHL’s landfill in Hollywood near the Naul will be able to take in toxic ash from the Indaver incinerator being built in Duleek, Co Meath, and the planned Dublin Waste to Energy plant in Poolbeg.
Patricia Rooney, MEHL general manager, said exporting hazardous waste was expensive and runs against EU rules.
“Ireland currently has no suitably operated, future-proofed facility to treat hazardous and ash waste,” she said. “These downsides will deepen further within the next few years when new incinerators commence operations.”
MEHL said the development could create more than 50 construction jobs and take 12 months to complete and employ another 10 people once up and running.
The proposal is in line with policies set out in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Hazardous Waste Management Plan and the Government’s National Development Plan, the company said.
The firm said all waste treated at the facility will be non-biodegradable, it will not accept food waste, and will have no odours, no methane, no vermin and no impact on greenhouse gases. MEHL plans to treat the ash and bury it in sealed containers.
Incinerators can create ash with heavy metals, unburned chemicals and new chemicals formed during the burning process.
MEHL has requested a pre-application consultation with An Bord Pleanála to determine whether the application be considered strategic infrastructure, so qualifying for planning consideration directly by An Bord Pleanála.
The company's facilities in Hollywood, Co Dublin, and Gormanston, Co Meath, have a combined maximum intake for landfill and waste recovery of over one million tonnes per year.
The Irish Waste Management Association (IWMA) has urged Minister for the Environment John Gormley to ban the export of hazardous ash material produced from waste incineration process in Ireland.
With the quantity of ash produced likely to reach 250,000 tonnes over the next few years, if all current incinerator plans are implemented, the IWMA said its exports would also amount to the loss of a commodity worth more than €20 million per annum.
The IWMA stated that exporting ash would be wrong both environmentally and economically.