It is reckoned that the average Irish person produces about four pounds of rubbish a day, rubbish which is expensive to dispose of and an environmental hazard. At the same time the average Irish person might use up to one kilowatt of energy every day, much of which is obtained from burning oil or coal a process which is also expensive and is not environment friendly.
Imagine therefore how convenient it would be if, instead of the waste being dumped, it was burnt instead and in that process energy was generated replacing oil and coal burning. This, in essence, is what the Government is planning for its site at Goddamendy, north west of Blanchardstown in Co Dublin. A simultaneous solution to two problems which is so simple that it must be too good to be true? Maybe not.
The plans for the incinerator/power station have already come under attack. The green lobby stresses the need to emphasise reducing, reusing and recycling and in this it is quite correct. However there will always be waste to be disposed of, regardless of how much recycling catches on. A staggering 40 per cent of household waste is food and that, quite simply, has to be dealt with.
The facility will be owned 75 per cent by an American company, Foster Wheeler Power Systems, which has similar facilities in New Jersey and Chicago. The other 25 per cent will be owned by the ESB which, of course, will purchase the electricity. This consortium won a Department of Energy tender for alternative energy projects conducted by an independent assessor. Alternative energy projects have been lamentably slow in establishing themselves in this State but it is hoped that they will provide 10 per cent of the electricity by 2000.
The Minister for State at the Department of Energy, Mr Stagg, will have surprised nobody with his announcement. Last October he went on record as being "frankly amazed that the Dublin local authorities... have failed to bring forward waste to energy projects". Dublin generates almost one million tonnes of waste a year and the cost of burying it, at Kill for example, is £63 per tonne. Infill sites, expensive and imperfect as they are, are not the long term answer. Kill is an extremely large infill but it will be full within ten years, if not sooner. Goddamendy will consume one half of Dublin's waste which hopefully with net increase if recycling can get truly established.
Copenhagen incinerates all its waste and has done so for more than 20 years. The energy thus generated fuels an extensive district heating scheme with no adverse environmental affects. Goddamendy is expected to generate 30 megawatts annually, saving £25 million a year on oil or coal imports and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 250,000 tonnes per annum. The project has got so much going for it that it must be made to work.
Goddamendy will not be a health risk if it is run properly. It will burn only non hazardous household waste, much of it food. The facility, according to Mr Stagg, will be 15 her cent cleaner than Poolbeg which is fuelled by natural gas. The public deserves cast iron assurances that EU standards will apply on emissions and the Environmental Protection Agency must provide those assurances. It is important that Goddamendy works effectively and is seen to do so because, hopefully, it will be the first of many waste to energy plants.