Sir, A waste to energy incinerator for Dublin has been announced by the Minister of State for Energy, Emmet Stagg. For many Dubliners, it seemed to have all the elements of a good news story; a solution to much of Dublin's waste crisis; an environmentally friendly, clean, alternative energy technology which would bring energy to 200,000 Dubliners, and the creation of 1,500 construction jobs.
Within hours of the announcement, the project had come in for the sharpest of criticism from many environmentalists. Very briefly, these are some of the reasons why:
Burning 490,000 tonnes of unseparated domestic refuse annually in an incinerator is not a solution to Dublin's waste crisis. In the two years (at least) it will take to bring the incinerator into operation, a government totally committed to a reduce/reuse/recycling programme, with the application of state of the art, environmentally friendly composing and recycling technologies,would go a long way to solving the waste problem. This would be a green solution.
Incinerators must operate around the clock in order to be profitable. In a society such as our own, in which the notions of reduction, reuse and recycling are at infancy stage, an incinerator will act as a disincentive to reduce the amount of waste we all, as consumers, generate.
The incinerator will not produce energy in an environmentally friendly, clean way. An estimated annual 125,000 tonnes of waste ash will be left after the refuse has been burned. Some of, this (an estimated 10 per cent based on Danish waste to energy incinerators) will be highly toxic and may include up to 100 tonnes of lead, one tonne each of cromium and cadmium and over two tonnes of arsenic.
This 10 per cent (known as "fly ash") will have to be disposed of in a handful. It is condensed, highly toxic and eternal. Stack emissions will include organochlorines such as dioxins and furans. There is no safe limit of dioxin in the environment, one of the most notorious and harmful pollutants in the world.
The 1,500 construction jobs are short term. The 75 long term jobs cannot be dismissed, yet when one considers the potential for long term, sustainable and useful jobs in a properly funded recycling industry, they seem dismal indeed. - Yours, etc.
Spokesperson on the
Environment,
Green Party,
5A Upper Fownes Street,
Dublin 2.