Irish domestic waste fuels Swedish kilns

DOMESTIC waste from the Mid-West is being sent to be burned in the kilns of a Swedish cement plant as part of a major refuse disposal initiative.

The first shipment of 2,000 tons of specially processed domestic refuse left Foynes Port in recent days. Shipping it abroad costs 50% less than sending it to a local landfill. Up to 30,000 tons of domestic rubbish will be shipped every year to help fuel the kilns in the Swedish plant.

Martin Sheahan, managing director of the region’s major refuse collection company, Mr Binman, said this initiative will mean that 75% of all domestic refuse collected by his company will be recycled.

The move will also bring huge savings for Mr Sheahan’s company. He said the 380 bin charge in Limerick was among the lowest in the country and the new initiatives would help them stay at the bottom of the price table.

“We have to pay for the hire of the ship and the total cost works out at about €75 a ton to dispose of this waste to Sweden. This compares with a landfill charge of €150 per ton.”

He said certain items of domestic rubbish are suitable for the Swedish fuel bales. The bales are put into a kiln in the cement plant and it is mixed with fossil fuel to heat the kiln. Even the ash which created by the kiln is then used as a further fuel mix.

Mr Sheahan said that by the end of this year they plan to divert a further 30,000 tons of rubbish from landfill with the installation of a €4.5 million compost processing machine.

“This machine will, to put it simply, turn the scrapings from the kitchen plate into a compost which will have a wide variety of uses.”

At present his company processes 100,000 tons of domestic rubbish and, with the new compost machine they have purchased in Canada, and the shipments to Sweden, the company will recycle 75,000 tons of the 100,000 tons it collects.

“This new compost-making system involves feeding certain kinds of rubbish into a stainless steel tunnel where it is kept at 70 degrees for 14 days where bleaches and other such matter will be eliminated,” Mr Sheahan said. As well as reducing the amount of rubbish being brought to landfill, the compost will help reduce the cost of maintaining landfill sites.

“At present Limerick County Council have to purchase woodchip and clay to use as capping at Gortadroma landfill. But the compost we will be producing will be ideal for this and we can give it to them free of charge,” Mr Sheahan added.

He said the compost may also provide a solution to the dust pollution at the closed down mines at Silvermines.

“We are a short distance from Silvermines and our compost has been designated as suitable for filling in disused mines.”

The compost cannot, he said, be placed on agricultural land which is part of the food chain.

The new compost machine, which is being shipped from Canada, will be operational by the end of the year.