Pfizer Ireland is to seek planning permission for a liquid waste incinerator at Ringaskiddy on Cork Harbour, where the company operates two plants.
If permission is granted by Cork County Council, this will bring to six the number of such incinerators operating in the harbour area.
Two other pharmaceutical companies in Ringaskiddy, Novartis and Glaxo SmithKline, already operate liquid waste incinerators at their plants. Novartis has two and Glaxo SmithKline three.
Yesterday Mr Dan Boyle of the Green Party, who is campaigning against the proposal by the Belgian company, Indaver, to site the Republic's first hazardous-waste incinerator in Ringaskiddy, said the construction of a sixth liquid waste incinerator on the harbour would make the Indaver project uneconomical, and this would obviate the need for such a facility.
Mr Boyle said that while he also had qualms about liquid waste incineration, at least it concerned definite waste streams.
Pfizer said the incinerator would become part of a new waste management strategy at its three plants in Ringaskiddy and Little Island. It would take a number of years to complete the project, which would be subject to approval by all the regulatory agencies.