Waste should be a public health issue, not a matter of National Toll Road profits

national | anti-capitalism | news report Monday February 27, 2006 11:57 by Cathy Swift - People before Profit Catherine.Swift at may dot ie 086-0679708

Our waste, our health, whose business?

2nd meeting of People before Profit held at IFI on Friday night - Speakers were Joan Collins of Campaign for an Independent Left, Áine Walsh of No Incineration Campaign, Drogheda and Fiona Boyd of Ballyogan Environmental Group. Summary of National Waste Report published in January 2006 also circulated.

People Before Profit Public Meeting 24th February 2006

People before Profit is a newly formed group whose aim is to provide support through collaboration for individual grassroots movements and to increase political space for the views of community activists. They held their second public workshop on Friday 24th 2006 at the Irish Film Institute on the of Ireland’s national waste policies – “Your Waste – Whose Business?”. Speakers at the meeting included Joan Collins of the Crumlin Workers Action Group and Campaign for an Independent Left, who focussed on anti-bin tax campaigns in Dublin; Áine Walsh of the No-Incineration Alliance in Drogheda and Fiona Boyd of the Ballyogan Environmental Group. A key part of the discussion focussed on the role of GREENSTAR, the waste company which is 88% controlled by National Toll Roads and which is thought to generate over 55% of NTR’s profits. This company is currently in the news because they have just received a massive €200 million loan from a syndicate of Irish and international banks in order to facilitate the purchasing of other waste companies. The potential of the Irish waste business is estimated at €1.2 billion.

In her talk, Joan Collins identified bin charges as a regressive taxation, designed to increase revenue for local authorities. The introduction of such charges also forms part of a drive towards privatisation as well as removal of a unionised labour force of bin collectors and the end result is the transfer of funds from the public community to private waste companies. New council estates and regeneration schemes on older estates where public housing falls below the 50% figure are being locked into agreements with specified waste companies.

This process ignores two key issues: Firstly, Public Waste Collection was introduced in the nineteenth century as a health measure, designed to discourage diseases such as cholera. In seeking to make waste a matter for profit alone and in forcing individuals to keep their waste locally for long periods, the health implications for the wider community have been ignored. Secondly, the system is inoperable. One in four households in Dublin are entitled to a waiver because of their low income level whilst public opposition means many householders are refusing to pay. The system cannot therefore be made to be profitable without hiking the individual payments to astronomical levels, totally unrelated to the actual cost of waste disposal. (A speaker from the floor stated that similar levels of non-compliance are also found in Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown.)

Áine Walsh began by referring to the creation six years ago of the Regional Waste Management Plans in which incineration plants were a key part of the proposed strategy. Because of popular opposition to such a notion, the right to rule on waste was removed from local councillors and given solely to Government appointed County and City Managers, thus creating a major democratic deficit. Opposition groups such as the No Incineration Alliance are forced to pledge massive funds from their own private resources in order to mount public awareness campaigns despite the fact that such campaigns clearly serve the public interest by increasing public knowledge.

An incinerator run by a Belgian semi-state, Indaver, is proposed for the area of the Platin cement works on top of a limestone aquifer outside Duleek and within the orbit of the Unesco World Heritage Site at Brú na Bóinne. This incinerator will burn domestic and hazardous waste materials and the bulk of what will be burnt is recyclable. (Non-recyclable waste does not burn easily and does not produce heat.) However the incinerator itself will produce highly toxic waste in the form of fly ash and bottom ash which will have to be disposed off in landfill. It is proposed that this landfill will be the GREENSTAR super-dump at Knockharley.

Incineration also produces dioxins, tiny airborne particulates which can be inhaled and heavy metal pollutants. Because these readily enter the food chain, the effects of incineration will affect the whole country, not just the areas surrounding proposed incinerators. While Ireland has enacted legislation refusing people the right to smoke in pubs to safeguard public health, incinerators will thus make all Irish citizens into passive-smokers.

No Incineration Alliance proposes that instead of relying on this dangerous technology, a Zero Waste policy actively promoting recycling would sustain resources, keep profits and jobs in the local community, and is risk free and environmentally friendly. The example of Galway City which produced 56% diversion from landfill in a mere 8 months shows what can be done when the Corporation is prepared to take initiatives on the matter.

Fiona Boyd for the Ballyogan Environmental Group pointed out that the local people had been told in 1973 that the dump site would cover 3 acres and last 3 years. In fact, it has been in operation for 30 years and now covers 55 hectares, enclosing 2 million tons of landfill. The local stream has turned black with pollutants, local cattle have died, decomposing organic and hazardous waste is leaching into the local environment because the dump base had never been lined. A new biodegradable waste recycling centre and a baling operation destined to deliver waste to the super dump at Kill, Co. Kildare, is now intended for Ballyogan, despite the limited access route along a rural road. Attempts to have a health survey done to measure the effects of the dump on community health were refused on the grounds that, since council tenants were more likely to be smokers, any statistical increase could be put down to that.

A summary of the National Waste Report published by the Environmental Protection Agency in January 2006 was also presented to the meeting. This states that a mere 2.16% of Ireland’s waste comes from households with 70% being classified as agricultural and 13% as construction waste. However these figures are based on voluntary disclosure and the NWR report states categorically that the figures for construction waste cannot be relied upon. The Office for Environmental Enforcement has reported that illegally dumped waste comes predominantly from the construction sector and an industry insider, Brian Buckley of Greyhound Recycling, has stated that c. 80% of Dublin’s total waste figure comes from construction.

On privatisation of bin collection, the NWR states (p. 21): “Collection of household waste is increasingly controlled by the private sector. The recommendation of the Competition Authority that tendering procedures be used by local authorities would go some way towards ensuring that local communities meet their legal obligations to provide collection services in an economical and efficient manner. The recommendation should be actively considered in the short-term.” The obvious inference is that tendering procedures are NOT currently deployed by local authorities in choosing private waste operators.

On recycling, the NWR report states (p. 55) that 73.8% of recycled Irish waste is sent abroad. No facilities exist in the Republic of Ireland for recycling ferrous metal, glass, paper or cardboard. This means we are exporting a potential industry. A glass recycling plant recently shut down in Dublin, apparently because land prices made the site more valuable as a commodity than processing glass. Despite “Race against Waste” and official efforts to encourage recycling, the government did nothing.

On landfill, the remaining national landfill capacity stands at 8 years. In Dublin it is far shorter than that but along with other cities such as Waterford, Dublin is solving its short term problems by exporting their waste to other counties. Despite this looming disaster, landfill is currently the only option available in the country for disposal of municipal and household waste.

Most attending the meeting agreed that public collection of household waste was their preferred option although a small minority said that a pay by weight system did have the advantage of focussing individuals on the problem of minimising waste. It was forcibly stated on a number of occasions that household waste was a tiny fraction of the national whole and that no public attention was directed towards the problems of industrial, agricultural and construction waste. The example was given of fridges where the new fridge came in large quantities of packaging, which became the responsibility of the new owner, not the company who produced it. People’s experience of the reality of recycling is that there is a gross insufficiency in recycling depots and that access to a car is often essential.

The meeting decided to write to Duncan Stewart asking him to highlight the issues raised in Eco-eye. Information leaflets synthesising the information collected would be available on www.people-before-profit.org and the key role played by the National Toll Roads in driving through the privatisation agenda (through their subsidiary Greenstar) would be highlighted at every available opportunity.

The meeting concluded with the notice of the next People before Profit workshop on Friday 10th March at 7.30 pm in the Irish Film Institute, Eustace St. The topic is “Tigers of a different stripe – women in 21st C Ireland” and speakers will include Goretti Horgan, Mary Muldowney , Anna Pas and Ailbhe Smyth. Notification was also given of a meeting against a Pool Beg incinerator organised by CRAI – Combined Residents against the Incinerator – for Tuesday 28th Feb at Clann na Gael GAA club, Sean Moore Road, Irishtown. Contact address is Frances Core 087-7715825. There is also a seminar being organised by the Westmeath Environmental Group, to explore alternative energy in the De Courcy Room, Greville Arms Hotel, Mullingar on Saturday 11th March from 11:30 to 2.