Poolbeg Incineration the Fallacy of Need

Thursday December 04, 2008 18:52

by SeamusO'Rourke - N/A

WE cannot Afford Incineration In Dublin or Ireland

Dear Maire/Chase/Others:

Now the time has come to fight the case, no more bullying from DCC RPS/MCO'sEPA.

There are no such things as irrevocable Laws or Legislative issues for if they were the ideals of National Socialism in Germany after the 1932 putsch would still be legal.

The unforgiving issue here has been the COMPLACENCY OF THE PUBLIC HERE.

WE know that Eunomia and Dr Dominic Hogg is working for the Government on a reassesment of the Needs in the Irish Waste Programme. In recent time he reported that the incredibly low recycling rates distort the need for a final treatment system. You will agree therefore to that. THus supposing therefor that the scenario was as described herunder.

Base Assumption 1

Waste Collected	800,000 tonnes per year.
Water Content.	35% to 40% [Eunomia reported for London at around 34.5%.]
Dry Waste	65% to 60%.
Dry Waste	510,000 to 480,000 tonnes per year.
Recyclables	40% [assumed higher than the current Dublin scenario]
Non-Recyclables	60%
Residual Waste	306,000 decreasing to 288,000 tonnes per year..

Now let's assume the better scenario of improved recycling and home composting that takes out 50% of the waste. Again..

Dry Waste	510,000 to 488,000 tonnes per year..
Recyclables	50%, [home composting ignored]
No-Recyclables	50%
Residual Waste	255,000 decreasing to 240,000 tonnes per year..!

It soon becomes obvious that the unusually highrate for Dublin People producing Municipal Solid Waste is extraordinarily high. With all the initiatives going on about waste reductions the potential to reduce this from 800,000 tonnes per year to 600,000 tonnes per year is a reality as that would make it comparable with London say. In this repect the figures given in tyhe base assumption would be reflected all the way through and the residual wastes would be 75% of the quoted figures in both cases.

Whilst this does not necessarily affect the debate that incineration is unnecessary in Dublin on Legal Grounds [refer to the Stockholm Convention on POPs] and the Deliberate misinformation given by P Rudden and his many many ''so-called'' experts from the incineration industry who mask their statements under the pretext that it is the safest way forward and thus flout their own Credentials as Engineers and Medical Doctors and Professionals. The premise for the issue of Incineration for Dublin and for Ireland is from 10 years ago and out-dated. That premise is based upon old data. And further more it penalises Us the Tax Payer on Costs and subsidies. If Incineration was so beneficial then it should exist without subsidies. If Incineration is so beneficial on Public Health Grounds then the Proposers should lodge now monies for future legal prosecution for unlimated damages as a result of potential latent medical effects twenty thirty and fourty years down stream. There are already cases being viewed in the USA Canada and the EU for such damages and they will be punitive.

The EU to which we in Ireland have joined has laid down Policy after Policy on Environmental Protection and for much of this we have to be thankful that we had a strident representation from Ireland. We have agreed that under the terms of the Waste Heirarchy that Incineration is the position of Last Resort and Least Favourable. Reduce (or Avoidance) Reuse and Recycle take precedence. They take precedence everywhere in the World. Burning waste overturns that Heirarchy. It puts the onus on the demands of the process and defiles the nature of all of us to reduce waste. It compounds the issue because by its nature the process produces heat and electricity [so-called renewable energies, or green energies] with the result that the insatiable demand is for the higher end of calorific valued material to burn. [You may be interested to be reeminded that when an incineration plant makes electricity the producer can sell all of the electricity it m akes to the general supply network at a premium rate. If however he requires electricity for internal needs - and that is generally around a minimum of 30% of th available power being produced - then he [the producer] is allowed to buy that electrical power at the standard rate which is lower than he gets for producing electricity. What a farce. Yes Dublin knows this and so does Covanta and Dong and P Ruidden at RPS/MCO'Sullivan! Oh what a ripoff! How to penalise the Tax Payers again!]

Very importantly in this series of missives over the past two years you will have seen that the ThirdWorld Countries have at long last agreed that they cannot afford incineration.

If they can't then neither can we in Ireland.