Irish Times - 19/04/2005
Incinerator key element of waste plan for Dublin
Tim O'Brien

Planning for an incinerator in Ringsend will begin in earnest this year as the Dublin region's burgeoning production of waste continues to outstrip attempts to recycle it.

Even with the incinerator, population trends and economic growth mean that the Dublin region will need a major new landfill site and two centralised composting facilities, it was revealed yesterday.

Introducing the Draft Replacement Waste Management Plan for the Dublin Region 2005-2010, the four Dublin local authorities said that a further €300 million of capital investment would be needed over the six years of the plan in addition to the current yearly capital investment of €30 million and current annual running costs of €176 million.

The draft plan, which goes on display in council offices and libraries from next Monday, was presented to members of Dublin City, Dublin South, Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown and Fingal County Councils yesterday.

It reveals that although municipal or household recycling has grown significantly since 1997 - from 7 per cent then to 26 per cent in 2003 - 74 per cent of all waste is still going to landfill.

The draft plan proposes the appointment of a private-sector partner later this year to develop the Ringsend incinerator. The incinerator is to have a capacity of between 400,000 and 600,000 tonnes per annum and it will treat non-hazardous municipal waste.

Because of the closure of landfills at Ballyogan in south Dublin this year, Arthurstown in Co Kildare in 2007 and Balleally in north Dublin probably in 2008, the draft plan says that a municipal landfill with capacity for 10 million tonnes must be developed.

The plan says that the next big challenge is to introduce separate "brown bin" collections and the composting of organic waste.

Other key components of the plan are:

• Expansion of the green bin service to collect more materials.
• More than 100 new "bring banks" for glass and cans.
• Local authorities to recover the cost of recycling newspapers, telephone directories, packaging materials, junk mail and other printed papers from producers.
• Six additional awareness officers to be appointed to promote waste-prevention in schools.
• Local authorities to appoint additional enforcement staff to carry out waste audits and spot-checks and regulate waste operators.
• Industry will be required to provide its own recycling parks for commercial and industrial waste and additional construction and demolition recycling facilities will be required.

The plan will be on display until June 30th, during which time submissions will be accepted. It will be available to view or to download free from next Monday on www.dublinwaste.ie

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