Dioxins or Zero Waste?

by Graham - GP Wed Mar 05, 2003 13:47

The Green Party stated today that it was extremely disappointed at An Bord Pleanála's decision to allow the construction of the country's first municipal waste incinerator at Carranstown, County Meath.

Planning permission for the development of a waste management site was granted by Meath County Council to Indaver Ireland in 2001, subject to 31 conditions being met. Last year An Bord Pleanála heard a large number of objections to the proposed incineration plant but decided today that it would uphold planning permission if the 31 conditions were met.

Green Party Environment spokesperson, Ciarán Cuffe T.D., said today, "The Green Party are extremely disappointed with this decision. We believe that communities, if given the choice, would reduce, re-use and recycle their waste rather than opt for incinerators. We also believe that emissions from incineration plants such as dioxins pose a risk to health and may also contaminate the food chain and because of this they are a real threat to Ireland's tourism, agricultural and food industries."

Mr. Cuffe also criticised the Government's overall handling of the waste crisis and its plans to allow incineration to stake a major claim in solving the crisis across the country. "It is strange to hear the Minister for Agriculture, Joe Walsh, express concern for Irish farming when his Government is promoting incineration policies which can only damage Irish agriculture and the food industry in general."

Mr. Cuffe said that "apart from the Government's promotion of a flawed technology, incineration will do little to decrease the amount of waste, as these plants need constant feeding to make them economically viable. They create the wrong market incentives. The Green Party will continue to work with local community interests in opposing incinerator proposals."

"We also feel that the Integrated Pollution Control Licensing (IPCL) licensing sytem needs to be reviewed, in order to allow an appeal process similar to that of An Bord Pleanála. We have tabled amendments to this affect the Protection of the Environment Bill which is currently before the Oireachtas. This case highlights the need to allow third party appeals in regard to pollution issues which is not allowed under the law as it currently stands."

Mr. Cuffe said that there were plans to build, not one but two incinerators in the general area, in Meath and Fingal. "Apart from the Indaver Carranstown incinerator, Treasury Holdings have applied to build a Herhof incineration plant at Courtlough, just south of Balbriggan, to process 100,000 - 150,000 tonnes of mixed materials per annum."

by Mr. Sofa Wed Mar 05, 2003 13:49

Great! In the meantime let'a all live in a landfill waiting for the holy grail of total recycling- get real!

by Graham Wed Mar 05, 2003 13:49

Greens To Unveil Amendments to the controversial Protection of the Environment Bill 2003 at a press conference in Buswell's Hotel on Thursday 6th March 2003 at 11.30 a.m.

Following the announcement yesterday by An Bord Pleanála to allow the construction of the country's first municipal waste incinerator at Carranstown, Duleek, County Meath and the plans by the Government to introduce the controversially titled 'Protection of the Environment Bill 2003 before the Dáil, the Green Party will unveil their amendments to this controversial Government Bill and demand that the coalition adopt a Zero Waste strategy.

The press conference will be attended by Green Party Environment spokesperson, Ciarán Cuffe T.D., Social Affairs spokesperson, Dan Boyle T.D. and Cllr. Deirdre de Burca ( Wicklow ).

GREENS PROTECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT PRESS CONFERENCE

BUSWELL'S HOTEL,
MOLESWORTH STREET,
DUBLIN 2

TIME: 11.30 A.M.

THURSDAY 6th MARCH 2003

by pete ranks Wed Mar 05, 2003 15:13

The problem with this whole issue is that we cannot live in the consumer driven society that we do without producing waste. What the GP should concentrate on is stopping capitalism, which is the driving force behind 99% of environmental degradation. We need a complete culture change to stop producing waste, not some leaflets on how to be a environmentally friendly consumer. If youze are not going to fight capitalism i.e. war on the environment, then let the incinerators be built, stop whining. If we want to keep living the way we do, we'll need lots of them. green consumerism is unattainable so get your principles right, if you want to be 'green' stop the profiteers.

by Terry Wed Mar 05, 2003 15:55

The resources put into recycling in this country are totally inadequate. We may ask
ourselves why this is so? Well it's quite simple really. Recycling in this country
is being underfunded so that it FAILS. It will then be comparitively easy by the
pro-incinerator lobby who clealy have friends and influence in the government to tell
us all that recycling has failed and 'can never' solve the waste crisis. They will
and are presenting incineration has the solution to all our problems.

So lets briefly go over some of the recycling details: There are token efforts at
glass, paper and alumnium recycling. There is virtually no recycling for the huge
quantity of very bulkly plastic bottle waste, known as PET plastic in the trade.
In other countries in Europe, you can find plastic bottle recycling everywhere, but
not here. However probably the biggest recycler of PET plastic bottles is carried out
by a company called Wellman International, and what is more they have a huge plant in
this country on the Cavan/Meath border for that purpose. It has been here for well over
10 years and they import all their PET plastic waste from Europe. I am aware that they
have asked the government and numerous councils here to please send as much plastic PET
waste to them, since they are only 50 miles up the road. BUT NOTHING IS DONE! WHY?
-Because there are certain politicians and officials (whom I presume are under the
influence of BROWN envelopes) who DO NOT WANT recycling to succeed.

Witness in the past year or two where the official consultants 'O'Sullivan et??' who
were advising Galway CC, that recycling would never take off and even it if did it would
take 15 years to reach a level of 45% max. They used this as a justification for building
an incinerator in the mid-West. However several groups (Galway Safe Waste Alliance??)
got together and kicked started the recycling and WITHIN 8 MONTHS they raised the level
to approx 50%. Incinerators are being pushed on the Irish population by the liars.
These same consultants have been used in all regions in Ireland and they have always
come out recommending incinerators.

So what do incinerators do? They burn rubbish and the residue or ash that remains is
around 30% of the original volume. However this residue is toxic waste, due to all the
impurities. Incinerators are used for burning plastics, many of which contain PVC or
Poly-Vinyl-Chloride plastic. These must be burned at around 700+ deg C in order to minimize
the production of a multitude of toxic compounds, one of which is Dioxin. Dioxin is one
of the most poisonous and carcinogenic compounds. However incinerators produce a vast
array of other poisonous compounds too. There is no burn temperature at which no toxic
compounds are produced. So can incinerators burn concrete? Obviously not. Batteries? No,
even though household batteries frequently get piled in, since they are part of the waste
stream and toxic heavy metals like cadmium. Glass? No. Tin cans? No. What then? Organic
waste, like potate skins etc? No.

And then where will this toxic waste residue go? There is actually talk of spreading it
on farmland I kid you not! But no worries, it will probably get buried in one of the
many illegal toxic waste dumps in former quarries in Co. Wicklow and instead become a
toxic timebomb beisde the Blessington lakes that supply 50% of Dublin's drinking water.

According to the Dublin City Corp website, the 'Thermal Plant' or incinerator to be built
in Ringsend, Dublin, is needed so as to burn that which cannot be recycled. How strange?
So lets see what goes in: Paper, cardboard, plastic and wood -that must cover most things.
But YOU CAN RECYCLE: paper, cardboard, and the bulk of plastic in the waste stream which
is in the form of PET bottles. So we see the whole thing is a complete lie! The wood could
easily be sorted and used for firewood or mulch.

But lets talk a bit more about incinerators. The background levels of dioxins in Ireland are
at least 40 times lower than elsewhere in Europe. The incinerators will change this and
contaminate large areas. The EU recommends that land within 30 miles radius or 2826 sq miles
should NOT be used for growing food (including grazing). There are 6 incinerators planned
for Ireland giving 6x2826 = 16,956 sq miles which is a good half of the country!!

Of course we know such recommendations will be completely ignored. So what image does this
do for Irish agriculture and the generally high standard of food and quality that this country
has aboard. But more than image, how many birth defects, cancers and numerous other bad
health effects are there going to be? Remember it is YOU and ME that will be getting sick.
Do you really think our top notch health system is going to make us better. Do you want to
die younger? Do you want your kids to be handicapped physically and or mentally? Do you want
to pay for it?

It is obvious that if incinerators are brought in, recycling will go down. Why? Because as
already pointed out above, incinerators burn all that can be recycled. Don't be deceived by
TDs, concillors, officials and experts who tell you that incinerators ARE recycling. They
will use this argument, that because the waste heat is used sometimes (but not always) to
produce electricity then it is recycling. I don't really buy that argument, because the
raw materials themselves are not recycled.

It has been pointed out that if all 6 incinerators are built, we will actually have to
import waste into this country to feed the damn things, because if they are not worked at
full capacity the whole operation is uneconomic. But lets not be caught out by that word
un-economic, because in the first place, the true costs to our environment and our health
has never been factored in. Un-economic to the operators that is. Damn the people.

The government has set-aside several 100 million Euros for the construction of incinerators,
and feck all for recycling. The incinerators will then be handed over to the private sector
to operate them on long term contracts. This guarantees a steady stream of revenue. We must
also remember the government changed the Waste Act and even had to use the FF Party whip to
get it through, and they have taken all power to make decisions for all matters relating to
waste from the councillors and back to central government. Numerous other laws and legal
hoops have been cleared out of the way, for the benefit of those who want incinerators.
What help has there been for recycling? For one, the temporary capital grants allocated in
Galway for recycling, were not renewed last year. The calls from Wellman International
(see above) have gone unheeded. Anyone know of any others? It's mainly, that absolutely
nothing has been done of significance but the politicians have gone out of their way, changed
laws, ignored public opinion, health effects and put aside money for the incinerator lobby,
all the while talking out the side of their mouths about how green their policies are.

And finally lets get to packaging. The supermarkets and retail have been allowed join a
voluntary scheme that has basically allowed them to clear their conscience and do nothing.
Has anyone seen a reduction in packaging lately. Do you as a consumer have a choice? No,
not really. And even if you do make a choice, it would cost you, because invariably the
item with less packaging costs more. So we are stung for the cost at all stages, buying
disposing, incinerating and of course our health and environment.

So what could recycling do? It could recycle most of the paper, cardboard, PET plastic,
wood, batteries, metal (including cans), glass, clothes. Building rubble could be ground
up for roadfill. Virgin quarry material could be taxed at 1 euro per tonne to give incentives.
All organic household waste could be composted. Efforts could be made to reduce packaging.
So we would be left with some residual wrapping and other waste. But it still would not
be 30% of the total or anywhere near it. URLs below will provide other details.

Here's some URLS that might be of interest.

http://www.wellman-intl.com/pgrm.htm
http://www.noincineration.com - No Incinerator
http://www.thebattlefortheboyne.com - Battle for the Boyne
http://www.noincinerationsouthtipp.com - South Tipperary Anti Incinerator Campaign
http://www.greenpeace.org/~toxics/toxic_incineration.html - Greenpeace Incinerator Campaign

http://homepage.tinet.ie/~galsafenv/gse/ -Galway for a Safe Environment
http://gofree.indigo.ie/~ljhannon/gswasub.htm -Galway Safe Waste Alliance
http://www.cobhonline.com/case/index.asp -Cork Alliance for A Safe Environment
http://www.chaseireland.org - Cork Harbour Alliance for A Safe Environment

http://www.home.zonnet.nl/ireland22/garbage.htm Ireland's Rubbish Crisis

http://www.rowatworks.com/Science/IncineratorToxic/ - Incinerator Toxic Emissions
http://www.communities-against-toxics.org.uk/ -Communities Against Toxics

by Terry Wed Mar 05, 2003 16:28

I meant to add they (Wellman) also recycle all those type of plastic bottles/containers
that shampoo bottles are made of.

And I also meant to say incinerators do NOT solve the problem of what to do with things
like old fridges and cookers, and electronic goods. All of which clearly cannot be burnt.
They can of course be recycled. It just that there are very few facilities where you can
leave off these materials.

Old tires? These in fact can be recycled too. A few years ago, break-throughs in the processes
to do this were made and have made it quite cost effective.

by George Plant Wed Mar 05, 2003 20:42

This Govt. of, by, and for the gombeen men continues to violate the first law of human survival: never shit on your own doorstep. They must be stopped.

by Raymond McInerney Wed Mar 05, 2003 21:46

Just one question. Does Wellman International pay for PET plastic products?

by Terry Thu Mar 06, 2003 12:50

Raymond,

I can't be certain whether they do pay for the PET plastic. I would imagine there is some
nominal amount. However either way, it cuts out the argument that there is no where to send
the PET plastic waste. Diverting all those plastic PET bottles and containers would reduce
our domestic waste stream by a significant amount.

by Ray McInerney Thu Mar 06, 2003 19:06

Thanks for that. Just had a quick look on their webpage. Didn't see anything on getting paid to bring in PET plastic.

I agree with you that the policy would significantly reduce plastic waste. Imagine all those wheelie bins, traffic cones and insulation material etc that one could make from these bottles.