Incineration is set to return to the south-east's agenda from Friday, when a new waste management plan for the region is to be announced.
The plan, which will go on public display next week, will include provision for a thermal treatment (or incineration) unit as well as proposals for a dramatic increase in other waste management systems, including recycling, reuse and minimisation.
The incineration option is likely to prove controversial and will be an issue in the general election.
The plan, due to be adopted next year, is the result of a nine-month study undertaken by consultants for the region's local authorities.
With landfill space rapidly diminishing, particularly in Tipperary South and Waterford, a speedy implementation of the plan is considered necessary to avoid a major waste management crisis.
A previous waste management strategy, drawn up for the South East Regional Authority by consultants Fehily Timoney & Co, had proposed that an incinerator be sited in an area taking in part of south Kilkenny, east Wexford and west Waterford. The proposal was vehemently opposed by local residents, and led to the setting up of one of the most active anti-incineration groups in the State, the Research and Information Group, (Raig Ltd), which plans to put forward a candidate in the Wexford constituency.
Fehily Timoney are also the authors of the new waste plan, which is to be launched in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, on Friday.
Mr Jim Harney, a senior executive officer with Tipperary South County Council, which was given the lead role in drawing up the plan, said the council would recommend an integrated approach, with a range of environmentally friend- ly practices.
The thermal treatment issue, however, is likely to get most attention.
Raig Ltd and another anti-incineration group, the Organisation for Ecological and Sustainable Waste Management, which has members in Kilkenny and Waterford, both resigned in September from a consultation forum set up as part of preparations for the plan.
They claimed the plan was being drawn up by unelected consultants and county managers and the public was effectively excluded from the process.
Tipperary South County Council denied this, saying a "real and tangible attempt" was being made to involve the public.
The plan, it is understood, concludes that the total landfill space in the south-east is sufficient to last for just two years - and that only if councils shared resources. Some counties have much less space than that, and attempts by the local authorities in Tipperary South and Waterford to open new landfills have been delayed by court challenges.
The plan will be on public display from next Wednesday until March 1st next year.
