Incinerator needed to deal with hazardous waste, says EPA

The extent of hazardous waste generated in Ireland indicates an urgent need for a purpose-built incinerator and new landfill facilities capable of dealing with toxic material, according to a plan produced by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The proposed hazardous waste management plan makes a strong case for the State becoming self-sufficient in handling the majority of its most menacing forms of waste, rather than exporting large amounts as at present, much of which is incinerated.

The plan also envisages a much stronger degree of prevention of such waste with a view to limiting hazardous waste output to the 1996 level, some 330,000 tonnes. Already there are indications a booming economy is generating significantly greater hazardous waste amounts, which makes the prevention target extremely ambitious.

The plan reveals that, based on 1996 figures, nearly 100,000 tonnes of hazardous waste are "unreported"; in effect, not accounted for.

Much of this is generated by small manufacturing enterprises and even householders, who are often unaware of the implications of increasingly stringent waste management legislation, it notes.

The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, who announced a public consultation process on the plan yesterday, accepted the implications in the likely event of Ireland deciding to become self-sufficient in dealing with hazardous waste.

Thermal treatment, in effect incineration, would be considered after extensive and careful consultation, together with the possibility of a new tax on hazardous waste in the spirit of the polluter-pays principle.

Mr Dempsey confirmed that industry, which does not deal with its own waste "on-site", faces increased waste-treatment costs. A tax was a matter to be considered within the larger context of fiscal management, while the most economical way of dealing effectively with this form of waste would be chosen. The EPA is staging six public seminars on the plan and receiving submissions on it up to November 30th.

Although much of Irish waste "capacity" is adequate for proper management of many categories of waste, the plan identifies significant shortcomings in other categories; notably for wastes that are currently exported for thermal treatment and landfill, said the EPA director, Ms Anne Butler.

"In addition, poor collection rates, particularly from small-scale generators, mean significant quantities are not collected or treated."

A number of "key and potentially unpopular decisions" were required if the prevention programme was to be successful, she said. These related to funding and tighter regulation of small producers of hazardous waste. The EPA recommends spending £5.5 million annually on prevention over seven years.

In total the plan envisages funding in excess of £85 million up to 2006, separate from substantial investment by industry in its own treatment facilities, including waste minimisation and recovery technologies.

The EPA programme manager for waste management, Mr Gerry Carty, said a "prevention ethos" was required, and for Ireland to be able to deal effectively with wastes that could not be prevented or recovered.

IBEC welcomed recognition of the "urgent need" for essential infrastructure for collection, recovery and disposal of hazardous waste, including specialist landfills and a thermal treatment plant. "Many companies are experiencing difficulties disposing of waste, which is no longer acceptable to local authorities in municipal landfills," said the business group's spokeswoman, Dr Mary Kelly.

But she said a recommendation that industries with a low hazardous waste output should be a priority for industrial development could send the wrong signals to sectors such as the pharmaceutical industry, which was of such importance to the national economy and recognised as being worldclass in terms of environmental management.