Ireland set to meet EU landfill targets
The Irish Waste Management Association (IWMA), who commissioned the report, believes the capacity of the proposed incinerator should be halved from 600,000 tonnes per annum to 300,000.
The contract to build the facility between Covanta and Dublin City Council has been extended repeatedly since September 2014.
The report undertaken for the IWMA by environmental and waste sector analysts, SLR Consulting Ireland looked at current and emerging waste management facilities in Ireland.
It found that Ireland is on track to meet EU landfill 2013 and 2016 targets, even if the Poolbeg incinerator is not built.
The analysis found that the Poolbeg facility was not necessary to avoid financial penalties, pointing out that there was more than adequate infrastructure emerging.
The IWMA said the report was important because it laid to rest the speculation about whether Ireland can meet EU landfill targets without the Poolbeg incinerator.
It added that the report also showed that it was not credible for the EU waste diversion targets to be used to justify the advancement of one particular waste management project ahead of others.
The IWMA believes that Ireland will achieve a national recycling rate of almost 50% by 2016, mostly due to the roll-out of the organic brown bin to households and commercial premises.
