DUBLINERS will soon be able to boast that they are breaking down the urban/rural divide every time they flush the toilet.
For Dublin Corporation will issue tenders in the next few weeks for contracts to covert Dublin's sewage into fertiliser for the farms and forests of Ireland, and for countries overseas.
Scientific trials for the conversion of Dublin's sludge into fertiliser at the Ringsend sewerage plant have been completed ahead of an EU deadline. From November 1998 the corporation will be prohibited from dumping the waste at sea.
At present the corporation gets rid of 300,000 tonnes of waste annually far out in Dublin bay, where it is dispersed by the tides.
The corporation has decided that the sludge collected at Ringsend will be either quick-dried into granules or mixed with alkaline products for use as fertiliser, especially in forestry.
Bord na Mona has been conducting research into this alternative use of the waste, for exclusive use in Irish forests.
A corporation spokesman said yesterday that other alternatives, such as spreading the untreated substances on agricultural land, had been ruled out because of national and EU regulations, and the difficulties of transporting such material through the city.
The spokesman said that the corporation expected national and international companies to tender for the contract to convert the waste at the Ringsend site.
The converted material will be trucked from the site to where it will be used or stored. The spokesman said it should involve only five or six truckloads a week, which would not create any major traffic or environmental problems.
The corporation is planning a further treatment plant on the site by 2000 to conform with EU regulations. The possibility of using the sludge for gas production will be investigated at this site.