Government will reclassify incinerators to pretend that waste doesn’t exist
Green Party Chairman and Dublin South East TD John Gormley says that reclassification of the proposed Ringsend incinerator as an ‘energy plant’ would be a further setback to efforts to minimise the generation of waste. The reclassification could be possible under a European draft waste management directive due for adoption next year.
“This Government has a pitiful record on the prevention and minimisation of waste, which are supposed to be its top priorities under its own waste management strategy. If the proposed EU directive allows them to reclassify waste being fed into incinerators as ‘raw material’, the Government will be able to claim reduction in waste volumes when in fact just as much waste is being generated.
“In the recent Dáil debate on the Green Party’s waste management motion Minister for the Environment Dick Roche said that ‘high waste generation can generally be expected in a country with a booming economy.’ He also said: ‘other countries are able to achieve higher recovery rates and lower waste treatment costs than is possible in Ireland because they use waste in energy plants to reduce their reliance on landfill.’
“These comments reveal that the Government doesn’t really believe in waste prevention and minimisation and instead is looking for ways to pretend waste doesn’t exist by reclassifying it. This draft EU directive would give them one such opportunity.
“This also further demonstrates that this mass burn incinerator is in fact fully in line with Government policy, as confirmed by Minister Roche on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland recently. Up until now Minister Michael McDowell has been telling us that the proposed incinerator was not in line with Government policy. What does Minister McDowell now say to this latest development? Given that he didn’t bother to show for the Green Party motion, it’s unlikely that we will hear very much more from Minister McDowell on this issue,” concluded Deputy Gormley.