Madam, - I wonder what Susan Philips (April 16th) imagines an "environmentalist" might be. She describes herself as a "keen environmentalist", yet appears to believe, like Martin Cullen, that incineration "disposes" of waste. Even Indaver, which builds incinerators, doesn't claim this.
Incinerators simply reduce the original waste volume (which is good), to produce a huge residue of concentrated toxic ash (which isn't). They also distribute volatile toxic combustion products, including dioxins, over the surrounding population - the most pernicious aspect of this outmoded technology.
Ms Philips makes patronising remarks about the Germans, with their "five bins under the sink" and their "fiddly rules", but she doesn't seem to appreciate that if any Irish local authority - in Wicklow, say - could achieve a consistent record of 50 per cent recycling of waste, as those silly Germans actually do, Mr Cullen's department would react as though we'd won the World Cup.
Ms Philips doesn't like landfills, and this must be an understandably sensitive issue for a former Wicklow county councillor; but does she not know that landfills are where toxic incinerator ash is put? If she does know of another method of toxic ash disposal, Indaver would certainly like to hear of it.
Finally, this "keen environmentalist" notes with approval Mr Cullen's dislikes of the democratic process and the voting system to which his hare-brained schemes are "vulnerable". Well, of course this is the lament of many of our political figures, though strangely enough in a few weeks' time these same complainants will miraculously rediscover their faith in the good sense of the Irish voter.
Rejection of incineration is not confined to the "greenie" lobby, whatever that is, but is general among all communities which do not accept that any problem of waste disposal can be considered solved by creating an indefinite future of serious health problems, water and soil degradation and the generation of concentrated toxic waste in escalating quantities - the certain legacy of Mr Cullen's proposed incinerators. - Yours, etc.,
NICHOLAS LOUGHNAN,
Main Street,
Youghal,
Co Cork.