Press Release 7 December 2004

Green Party accuses Environment Minister of foisting Incineration on Public

The Green Party has today has accused the Minister for the Environment of using scare tactics to persuade the public to support his plans for the construction of municipal incinerators.

Green Party Environment Spokesperson Ciarán Cuffe TD said today:
“Dick Roche talks about landfills as being “intergenerational timebombs”. He neglects to say that incinerators have the ability to store up problems for future generations. Many countries are still dealing with the health and waste problems of badly run incinerators.

“If we go down the incineration route it will become increasingly difficult to wean people away from being a throw-away society. Even incinerators produce large amounts of landfill waste in the form of ashes and a significant amount of toxic residues. Minister Roche is trying to distract the public from his Government’s dismal record in recycling. Our paper recycling rates are the lowest in Europe; the Government allowed the Irish Glass Bottle Company, which provided glass recycling to close, and there’s been no move to introduce a deposit system on drinks containers.

“Today’s waste is tomorrow’s raw materials. Why let it go up in smoke? What we need is a stronger commitment from the Department of the Environment to encourage waste reduction, re-use and recycling, rather than burning our rubbish.

“The new information leaflets from his Department are reported to carry and endorsement for incineration from the World Health Organisation (WHO). However the WHO states* that there needs to be
‘Research and promotion of new waste management technologies or alternatives to incineration’, and that
‘WHO aims to promote effective non-burn technologies for the final disposal of medical wastes to avoid both the disease burden from unsafe health-care waste management and potential risks from dioxins, furans and co-planar PCBs.’
ENDS

* (Source) http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs281/en/

Ciarán Cuffe is a TD for the Dún Laoghaire Dáil Constituency. Ciarán can be contacted at Dáil Éireann, Kildare Street, Dublin 2 or 96 Patrick Street, Dún Laoghaire Tel. 284 6060 or 618 3082, Fax 618 4341, Email Ciaran CiaranCuffe.com, or Text Ciaran on 087 265 2075.