A public meeting explaining the additional capacity planned for the intended incinerator at Carranstown, Co Meath, will be held this evening in Drogheda by Indaver Ireland.
Indaver is seeking to increase capacity at the proposed incinerator by a third to 200,000 tonnes of municipal waste per annum. The company was granted planning permission for a 150,000 tonne incinerator in November 2000.
In June 2005, Minister for the Environment Dick Roche amended rules governing regional waste plans. Mr Roche said the incinerator at Carranstown would "primarily", but not exclusively, burn rubbish from the north east region.
This altered the waste disposal rules the Government had drawn up dividing the State into ten regions, each responsible for processing municipal waste generated in its area.
Indaver sought permission to process waste from outside the north east region so it was not at the mercy of what it described as "a cartel of waste collectors".
Local residents near Carranstown are opposed to the idea of waste from outside the region being treated at the plant, saying this is contrary to the EU's "proximity principle" - that all forms of waste should be treated as close as possible to its source.
A spokeswoman for Indaver said today the draft waste-management plan for the North East had an "energy recovery target of 39 per cent and in order to meet this figure we would have to increase capacity from 150,000 tonnes to 200,000".
She claimed initial studies have shown "no significant impact on public health and the environment from this increased capacity".
However, the group Zero Waste Ireland said incinerators emit a "dangerous cocktail of highly toxic substances every hour which will create a haze plume over Drogheda and East Meath".
The meeting will take place in the Boyne Valley Hotel, Drogheda, at 8pm.