Waste incinerator plan fans embers of opposition

To incinerate or not to incinerate? That is the burning question, and one that is galvanising proponents and opponents on both sides of the Border.

Proposals to use an incinerator to dispose of waste produced in eight local authorities areas of the north-west surfaced at a Derry City Council meeting last month after a request by Sinn Fein councillors that the matter be taken out of the realms of "confidential".

First mooted by the Derry-based North West Region Cross Border Group (NWRCBG), a body that aims to enhance cross-Border co-operation in infrastructural matters, it has also succeeded in uniting local communities in cross-Border opposition to the proposal.

Campaigners such as Dr Peter Doran, of the Foyle Basin Council in Derry, and Mr David Campling, of the Donegal Green Party, are calling for a full debate on whether incineration is the best way to proceed in planning for the region's waste disposal over the next 10 to 20 years.

The NWRCBG will be inviting tenders in September, which would indicate that an incinerator will be operating in either Co Derry or Co Donegal within the next seven years.

It might puzzle some that local authorities on each side of the Border are proposing building a refuse incinerator, given that communities in these areas mobilised 10 years ago to defeat such a plan proposed by the multinational Du Pont.

An incinerator is part of a waste-management strategy deemed necessary if the region is to comply with EU directives demanding a dramatic reduction in landfill disposal.

The reasons for opposition are varied. Where some, such as Mr Campling, see incinerators as dangerous monstrosities, others such as Dr Doran believe they represent unimaginative, inefficient and, ultimately, dangerous planning.

Mr Campling focuses on dioxin emissions, which the US Environmental Protection Agency identified in a report in May as one of the major causes of cancer. Among the most dangerous man-made chemicals, they accumulate in fat and milk, working their way up the food chain. They are known to interfere with the immune system and the reproductive and endocrine systems.

The four local authorities that originally came together to devise a regional waste-management strategy under the auspices of the NWRCBG were Donegal County Council, Derry City Council, Limavady Borough Council and Strabane District Council.

A study commissioned by them in 1998 recommended incineration as part of the region's long-term strategy, and since then four other local authorities - Coleraine Borough Council, Magherafelt District Council, Ballymoney District Council and Moyle District Council - have come on board.

Their addition to the pro-incineration fold, says Mr Jim Holohan, deputy county engineer of Donegal County Council, would make an incinerator more cost-effective. Where the original four produce 160,000 tonnes of waste annually, the eight produce some 250,000 tonnes.

Incineration, he stresses, would be only part of an overall strategy for the region's waste disposal. The study of the region's waste-management strategy, carried out by European waste-management consultants Entec, set out what it described as the "balanced option" which it said adhered to the principle of minimum environmental impact with maximum economic return.

This "balanced option" strategy, explains Mr Holohan, has five elements: a reduction in the amount of waste produced; the recycling of as much dry waste, such as glass, paper and tin, as possible; the composting of as much other waste as possible; the incineration of the rest; and the disposal of the residue ash in land-fill sites.

An added attraction is that energy can be recovered from the burning process and sold on to the national grid.

However, Dr Doran says that since building a plant would cost between £30 million and £50 million, it is not surprising that the Entec report envisages up to 50 per cent of the region's waste going for incineration.

He also points out that Entec is a subsidiary of the Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux group, a European company that builds waste incinerators. "There is a serious conflict of interest issue," he says.

The original report envisages a number of advantages in the "balanced option" strategy, among them the creation of many jobs.

Dr Doran and Mr Campling are hoping to galvanise the public into calling for alternatives not only to incineration but also to the whole "balanced option" strategy.

"Zero-waste strategies are viable and should be employed on an all-Ireland basis," argues Dr Doran. "They have been in California and Georgia in the US, New Zealand, Canada and in the Australian capital, Canberra."

Zero waste, as the name implies, means striving for as close to no waste or leftovers from the process of disposing, recovering and recycling of rubbish. It would mean not simply disposing of goods and products once initially finished with, but reusing, refilling, repairing, reclaiming, refurbishing, restoring, recharging, reselling, revitalising, redesigning and reducing the amount we use in the first place.

Mr Holohan predicts a doubling in the amount of waste produced in Ireland over the next 25 years.

"Currently, we are very low waste-producers. The US produces about twice as much waste per head as we do, but we are heading in the US direction," he says.

"We are party to the NWRCBG plan, but we also have our own plan in Donegal, which is being drawn up in parallel. It, too, is looking at incineration and landfill and, one way or another, with a 4.5 per cent increase in waste production every year in the county, time is of the essence."