THE Department of Health has been criticised for seeking tenders for the disposal of risky health care waste without having any firm estimate of the quantities of such waste being generated.
"How can they begin to address the clinical waste issue when they haven't even done an audit?" asked Ms Iva Pocock, of Greenpeace Ireland. She also claimed the Department was "reneging" on its commitment not to consider incineration.
In a letter to Greenpeace, the Department admitted earlier this week it was "not aware of any comprehensive audit of health care waste in general or of health care risk waste in particular having been carried out in Ireland".
The Department, in a joint approach with its counterpart in Northern Ireland, is seeking tenders for "the transportation, treatment and disposal of clinical/health care risk waste throughout the island of Ireland" over 10 years.
It is envisaged that there would be at least three treatment plants two in the Republic, which would be "generally" based on the use of non-incineration technology, and one in the North, where the successful contractor "may wish to consider the use of incineration".
However, the tender document specifies that certain categories of health care waste should be burned in "suitable incinerators" or subjected to "chemical denaturing".
Mr Pearse Stokes, of Eco Med, a Co Wicklow company specialising in more environment friendly health care products, criticised the Department's approach, saying it ran the risk of locking Ireland into the use of "obsolete technology" into the next century.
New concepts for treatment, waste segregation and product choice which might lead to less waste were constantly becoming available, he said.
The Department's estimates of the volume of health-care waste "bear no relation to the quanties actually being disposed of he said, adding that figures given for the North significantly exceeded those for the Republic, despite its larger population.
"It has been verified by qualified staff that, for its own hospitals, the Department of Health has seriously understated the actual tonnage known to require disposal as clinical waste," Mr Stokes said. He believed the actual figure was about 9,000 tonnes.
As a result, companies wishing to tender for the contract could not estimate the number of vehicles they would require, nor could they be precise about the capacity of each treatment plant.
"I have been advised that in one case a company which had been dealing with the Department of Health for over five years in connection with clinical waste disposal options had not been informed and had not become aware of the published tender notices until it was too late".
Mr Stokes said there were serious doubts that any locality would accept the siting of an incinerator burning up to 700 tonnes of health care waste. "I also wonder how this fits in with the recent Department of Agriculture proposals on incineration of animal offal," he added.
"Is it not the case that with a £30 million incinerator for animal offal installed, it is likely that clinical waste at least and possibly all municipal waste will end up being burned?" he asked. All the Department of Health would say, however, was that tenders had been invited.
According to Mr Stokes, the tendering process was excluding on site treatment, which was the most effective way of dealing with clinical waste. It did not create reliance on powerful commercial interests, but left decision making and responsibility to local hospital managements.
