As the deadline draws near, there is hot competition for the lucrative contract to build a municipal waste incinerator in Dublin, writes Environment Editor, Frank McDonald.
Up to 25 waste management companies, including several from overseas, are expected to lodge "expressions of interest" in building a major thermal treatment plant on the Poolbeg peninsula in Dublin Bay by the deadline of August 23rd.
The plant, to be developed as a public-private partnership, is expected to cost some €200 million. But the value of treating up to 400,000 tonnes of municipal waste there annually is estimated at €600 million over the 25-year contract period.
In line with Government policy, the specification requires a "waste-to-energy" plant, whereby the heat it generates would be recycled to provide energy for other municipal facilities in the area, and even for a Docklands district heating network.
It is understood all the major players in the waste market in Ireland, many operating with partners from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the US, are interested in the project, which is seen as a major business opportunity.
However, it will be at least the end of 2006 before any waste is burned at Poolbeg. The initial applications will first be whittled down to a shortlist for more detailed tenders and it won't be until towards the end of next year that a preferred bidder is selected.
The winning company will then have to go through the hoops of the planning process in parallel with seeking a licence from the Environmental Protection Agency. Neither passage will be easy, given the level of opposition to incineration in Ringsend.
A dialogue involving a community interest group and a series of public meetings have just concluded. "Local people are not any less opposed to the project, but they are considerably better informed and we are still talking," said Mr John Singleton, who heads Dublin City Council's waste management division.
Close observers say the tenor of the debate changed from outright opposition at the outset to a more measured response at the end of the consultation process, after people had heard a range of views from experts, some of whom also opposed incineration.
Apart from dioxins, one of the most frequently expressed concerns was about the traffic a thermal treatment plant would generate in the area; based on the average capacity of municipal refuse trucks, this is likely to amount to at least 182 vehicle movements per day. The Poolbeg site, adjoining the council's newly upgraded sewage treatment works, was selected as the best location for a thermal treatment plant by a study undertaken after the Dublin Regional Waste Management Plan was adopted in 1998. But would it not make more sense to decentralise thermal treatment to three sites - one in Poolbeg, a second in south Dublin and a third in north Dublin? Mr Singleton said there was "no objection in principle - it depends on the volume of waste available".
Given that volumes have hugely outstripped projections in the 1998 waste plan and that its ambitious recycling targets are unlikely to be met in full, it is estimated that there will be at least 700,000 tonnes of residual waste a year requiring treatment at disposal.
Mr Singleton emphasised that no thermal treatment process was being ruled out for Poolbeg, providing that it involved generating energy from waste rather than "mass-burn incineration".
One of the contenders will be Herhof Environmental, a joint venture by property developers Treasury Holdings and a German company which pioneered a system for separating recyclables from waste and turning the residue into refuse-derived fuel, or RDF.
Herhof suffered a setback recently when Fingal County Council refused planning permission for its first Irish treatment plant at Courtlough, near Balbriggan, because of visual impact and an "inadquate" environmental impact statement.
The company, chaired by Mr Kevin O'Sullivan, the former DúLaoghaire-Rathdown county manager, still maintains that the best solution for Dublin would be to have three treatment plants, with the RDF they produce sent for incineration at Poolbeg.
The Herhof process removes 50 per cent by weight from the waste stream, producing a relatively clean RDF. It would eliminate the need for door-to-door collection of recyclables - a major saving in itself - even if the resulting material is more degraded.
This would be contrary to the prevailing waste management ethos, which is why the Herhof solution is regarded as so heretical in Germany. Any move to introduce it here might also be seen to challenge existing "green bin" collection contracts.
Though Herhof will tender for the Poolbeg incinerator, the company believes it can also win contracts by privately sourcing up to 200,000 tonnes of waste - mainly commercial and industrial waste - for which there are increasingly limited disposal options.
In the meantime, it is pursuing an appeal to An Bord Pleanála against Fingal County Council's decision to refuse planning permission for the plant at Courtlough, just off the Blanchardstown bypass, which would have a capacity to treat up to 150,000 tonnes of waste.