Decisions on incinerators in several counties will show if the case for them is viable, reports Chris Dooley.
The battle over incineration could be won and lost in coming months on the back of several expected planning decisions.
Opponents of thermal treatment know that if commercial incinerators planned for Meath, Cork and Tipperary are approved, the fight to keep them out of other areas will be harder to win.
Conversely, if the planning authorities bow to concerted opposition and turn down the three facilities, the case for municipal incineration in general could be fatally undermined.
Two of the plants under consideration have been proposed by Indaver Ireland, whose parent company operates integrated waste-management facilities in Belgium.
Its plan to build a municipal waste-incinerator to serve the north-east has already been approved by Meath County Council and is now with An Bord Pleanála, which received two dozen appeals from groups and individuals.
The company's second, and equally controversial, proposal is to build a hazardous waste-incinerator in Ringaskiddy, Co Cork. That project is still with Cork County Council.
An Bord Pleanála, meanwhile, is also considering a plan by National By-Products to build a meat-and-bonemeal incinerator at its rendering plant near Cashel, Co Tipperary.
The most advanced project of the three is Indaver's proposal to build a regional waste incinerator alongside a major recycling facility at Carranstown, Co Meath, which it hopes to have operational by early 2005. More than 22,000 people have signed a petition opposing the project.
Mr John Ahern, Indaver Ireland's general manager, says people have a right to voice their objections, but he is critical of the length of time the planning process has taken.
It is now a year since Meath County Council approved the facility and the matter passed to An Bord Pleanála.
A High Court bid by opponents of the project to prevent the Bord proceeding with an oral hearing failed last month, and a date for the hearing is now awaited. "We have no problem with the number of hurdles we have to cross before we can proceed. It's proper that there should be checks and balances in the system," said Mr Ahern.
"But win or lose you should be told within a reasonable amount of time." He is hopeful, however, of a decision before the end of the year.
The Ringaskiddy project faces its next major hurdle shortly when councillors vote on a proposed rezoning of the Cork county development plan - necessary for the project to get planning permission.
The prospect of councillors voting for a hazardous waste incinerator, however, is an unlikely one, even if the project includes more palatable features such as a community recycling park.
If, as expected, the councillors reject the advice of council management and vote against the development plan change, Indaver will appeal to An Bord Pleanála. Opposition to the project is intense. The Ringaskiddy and District Residents' Association says the community has been "traumatised" by overindustrialisation during the past three decades and has had enough.
Mr Ahern, however, claims the location is ideal because the Cork area, where the pharmaceutical industry is concentrated, produces 60 per cent of the State's hazardous waste.
At present this is exported to EU states such as Holland and Germany for incineration, but the EU's proximity principle, requiring that waste be disposed of close to where it is produced, makes this practice unsustainable in the long term.
If Indaver gets the go-ahead for the hazardous waste incinerator, it plans to build a municipal waste-burner for Co Cork on the same site at a later stage.