TOKYO:AMID THE birth pangs of Ireland's incinerators, spare a thought for Tokyo, home to 12 million people who generate over three million tonnes of rubbish a year, most of which is burnt in 21 incinerators.
Unwelcome press attention and a series of lawsuits forced authorities to clean up facilities. Now, incinerators convert rubbish into electricity and state-of-the-art equipment controls noise and pollution.
Tokyo's enthusiasm for incinerators is partly driven by lack of space. The city's main dump in Odaiba will be full in 30 years. Alarm that Odaiba is filling up faster than expected persuaded the city government to reverse a law prohibiting the burning of plastics. Many believe the decision was, in fact, prompted by a rubbish shortage.
The amount of trash produced by Tokyo has fallen below the capacity of its incinerators. "Incinerators waste money when they aren't incinerating. Also, some local governments make money from incineration by producing energy . . . so plastic [is] a 'resource'," says commentator Philip Brasor.
The directive appears to confirm suspicions that burning garbage slows recycling.
According to Maurice Brian, a retired Irish engineer and conservation adviser, planned capacity for Ireland's three plants in Poolbeg, Meath and Rathcoole will be 1.2 million tonnes a year, over double the rubbish predicted to be produced by the middle of the next decade. "There will be more pressure to stop recycling," he says.
More worrying for many is the potential for worsening pollution. Clean Association of Tokyo 23 - a governmental body - says the incinerators are safe. The Environmental Research Institute there says government surveys are unreliable. "The samples are taken at times and in areas that are most convenient to the government's case," it says.
That doesn't sound like good news for Dublin. But the Toshima plant believes it has dioxins licked. A mix of high temperatures and cooling removes dioxins and acid gas. The plant sucks in air to keep smells down and routes trucks away from residential areas.
Dublin City Council ignored Japanese technology, focusing on incinerators in European countries. Council project engineer John Singleton says "this is the best available technology". The lesson from Tokyo seems to be that protests work: Toshima took almost a decade to build as authorities repeatedly revised plans to take account of residential concerns.
