Galway waste plan seen as `fundamentally flawed'

The row over Connacht's draft waste management plan seems set to continue, with the plan's architects and opponents locked in battle concerning the "myths" and "facts" about incineration.

Some 15,000 people have already signed a petition calling for Galway city and county councillors to vote against incineration or thermal treatment, and further opposition was expressed at a public debate hosted last Sunday night by Galway for a Safe Environment (GSE).

GSE has described the draft plan as "fundamentally flawed" and called for it to be withdrawn.

However, Mr P.J. Rudden, a waste management consultant from M.C. O'Sullivan and author of the plan, asked the public to "beware the myths and be aware of the facts" about modern thermal treatment.

He dismissed claims by environmentalists that incineration was "yesterday's technology" and that the method also discouraged recycling. Denmark, the Netherlands and Switzerland had both the highest recycling and incineration rates in Europe, he said, and the proposed plant in the west would be designed to take only a third of Connacht's waste.

Some 48 per cent would still have to be recycled by communities in their own counties using a new three-bin system for organics, dry recyclables and combustibles, Mr Rudden said. He stressed the importance of reducing dependence on the landfill option for waste.

Dr Conchur O Bradaigh of GSE, one of the speakers at Sunday's debate, said the economic costs cited in the plan grossly underestimated the cost of an incinerator, burning 184,000 tonnes annually, at £46 million. Given the costs of plants visited by councillors last year in Germany and Denmark, at £141 million and £100 million respectively, the estimated figure for Connacht would not build a plant capable of meeting EU emission standards.

Dr O Bradaigh also claimed there was a "major miscalculation" in the O'Sullivan plan on the amount of carbon dioxide which the proposed incinerator would emit. Whereas the plan had cited an annual figure of 47,467 tonnes of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, the "true" figure could be more than 215,000 tonnes.

"This miscalculation completely changes the conclusion in the report that the incinerator option is the best practicable environmental option," he said.

Four potential sites in and round Galway city have been earmarked for the proposed plant, and three in east Galway for landfill.

Speakers in favour of thermal treatment/incineration at the GSE debate included Mr Rudden, Mr Niklas Johansson of the Swedish Environmental Agency, and a Danish consultant, Mr Gunnar Kjaer. Speakers against were Prof Paul Connett of the University of St Lawrence, New York; Dr Vyvyan Howard of the University of Liverpool; and Dr O Bradaigh.