Local authorities in the north-east and the mid-west are expected to commission studies to identify where municipal incinerators might be located, following a strong recommendation that they should consider this waste disposal option.
In each case, incineration has been recommended in nearly identical feasibility studies carried out by a consortium headed by M.C. O'Sullivan, consulting engineers. However, these studies stop short of selecting sites.
The capital cost of each project would be at least £53 million, and the studies suggest that the local authorities should initiate a procurement process which would see the private sector providing the facilities on a "design, build and operate" basis.
Given the level of public opposition to new landfill sites, coupled with a national policy which favours the recovery, re-use and recycling of waste, the consultants say "a significant reappraisal and redirection of waste management policy" is required.
The mid-west region of Clare, Limerick and North Tipperary would, with the addition of Kerry, be large enough to support a waste incinerator with a capacity of 150,000 to 200,000 tonnes a year. Limerick city would be its most likely location.
One of the key considerations is that the chosen site must have good transport links, by road and/or rail. However, in each case, the consultants recommend that the primary means of transport from a series of transfer stations would be by road.
Though no specific location is mentioned for a "thermal treatment" facility in the north-east, serving Louth, Cavan, Monaghan and Meath, the potential sites are identified as Dundalk, Carrickmacross, Kingscourt or Navan, prior to a more detailed study.
As the consultants note, there is potential for cross-Border co-operation on waste management; it was one of the specific areas mentioned in last year's Belfast Agreement. The authorities in Northern Ireland are also reviewing their waste management policies.
"Waste combustion with energy recovery is a safe, tried and tested technology capable of meeting stringent environmental standards," the studies both say, adding that properly-designed plants would at the very least comply with more stringent EU emissions standards.
These draft standards include new limits on emissions of dioxins and furans, two groups of chemicals which are released in the combustion process. Dioxins, in particular, are carcinogenic and have been blamed by environmentalists for causing other health risks.
According to the consultants, all flue gases from a conventional combustion plant would be `'cleaned" to remove particulates, heavy metals such as cadmium or mercury, acid gases such as sulphur dioxide and dioxins/furans to meet the required standards.
Licensing of new thermal treatment plants - whether of the conventional combustion type or the more recently developed process of gasification - will be a function of the Environmental Protection Agency, in line with the draft EU standards "at a minimum".
The consultants favour conventional combustion with energy recovery, describing it as the `'most robust" of all the technologies, but they say gasification "appears to be very close to proving that it is a fully developed technology", with a new plant in Karlsruhe, Germany.
While washed and granulated slag from burning waste can be recycled in road construction projects, the studies stress that flyash from the flues of an incinerator containing high levels of heavy metals and dioxins must be disposed of in a controlled landfill site.
The studies say almost 170,000 tonnes of waste is available in the mid-west for recycling or thermal treatment, while the corresponding figure for the north-east is 232,000 tonnes.
According to the consultants, the cost of operating a thermal treatment plant, which varies from £40 a tonne in Denmark to £120 a tonne in Switzerland, must be fully recovered from all waste generators, including households, in line with the polluter-pays principle.
Accepting the need for a public awareness programme, they say the benefits to an area could include a swimming pool using surplus heat generated by the plant, a more extensive district heating system and/or additional electricity generated for the national grid.
"With a modern state-of-the-art facility run as a centre of excellence in waste management, the potential for overseas interest with the associated `tourism' potential should not be underestimated," they say.
