INCINERATION needs to be examined urgently as an alternative, to dumping on landfill sites, according to the Minister of State for Energy, Mr Emmet Stagg.
"I am frankly amazed that the Dublin local authorities, whose areas are the main waste producers, have failed to bring forward proposals for waste to energy [incineration] projects to use up the one million tonnes of waste produced in their areas annually.
"It is no longer acceptable to bury waste in landfill sites at costs of £45 per tonne, escalating to £63 per tonne in the proposed Kill superdump, with its attendant pollution and disruption of communities. An alternative is now available and Dublin must examine it urgently," he said.
Mr Stagg said generating electricity from organic waste streams such as sewage sludge, animal slurry and municipal solid waste had become "increasingly popular" throughout Europe and proved to be a "remarkable financial success" in Denmark.
He referred to an unpublished study, commissioned by his Department, which estimated that the total volume of waste produced in the Republic could be used to generate 100 megawatts of electricity, saving £13.5 mild lion a year on imported oil and creating up to 1,000 jobs.
Calling on local authorities to, adopt a more imaginative approach, he said there was nothing to prevent them generating electricity from waste.
Mr Stagg said independent assessors were evaluating tenders, for a competition to supply energy from biomass sources, including waste incineration, and he hoped to be make a final decision on the submitted projects by the end of this year.
He emphasised, however, that the priority was to recycle valuable waste products, such as plastics, aluminium and glass.
