Waste plan needed, not incinerators - Cork group

From: ireland.com

Monday, 22nd September, 2003

A group campaigning against the building of a toxic waste incinerator has called on the Government to leave incineration "very firmly at the bottom of the list" of waste-disposal options.

Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment (CHASE) made its appeal as An Bord Pleanála prepares to hold an oral hearing into a planning application for a commercial hazardous waste incinerator in the Cork harbour area.

The hearing into the application by Indaver Ireland opens at the Neptune Basketball Arena in Cork this afternoon.

CHASE called on the Government to "properly implement" the National Hazardous Waste Management Plan and to put in place the infrastructure needed for clean production and waste minimisation before resorting to incineration.

It also asked the Government to provide the funding to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help industry make the change to cleaner production methods.

"We are asking for nothing new" said Ms Mary O'Leary, chairman of CHASE. "We just want the Government to implement their own policy as it was intended, first of all reducing and recycling our hazardous waste, and leaving incineration very firmly at the bottom of the list, only to be introduced after all the other options have been exhausted.

"We need a moratorium now on incinerators, such as the one being discussed this week by An Bord Pleánala, to allow the cleaner waste management options a chance to work."

The Cork group has said it will take a case to the High Court and the European Court if Indaver's appeal is successful.

In May this year, Cork county councillors rejected a proposed contravention of the county development plan that would have allowed the incinerator to be built on the 30-acre site at Ringaskiddy.

Cork County Council refused planning permission for the development in June, and Indaver has appealed that refusal to An Bord Pleánala. Over 20,000 objections to the initial application were lodged with the council.

Indaver, a Belgian firm, says the first phase of the €93 million project would create 50 jobs and be operational by 2007.