Incinerators plan should be scrapped

I WELCOME Indaver’s decision to shelve its incinerator plans for Ringaskiddy, Co Cork, and Co Meath.

I hope they will bow to the will of the Irish people and abandon these projects for good.

And they should acknowledge the major reason for their change of heart was the fact that the EU waste framework directive would not allow them reclassify waste as recycling.

This refusal by the European Parliament to reclassify incineration as recovery and energy production was disastrous for the incinerator industry.

Without it they would have been allowed to bypass local objections and even get EU grant aid combined with less regulation. In effect, it has stopped companies like Indaver from reinventing themselves as energy producers and recyclers.

This is due in large measure to grassroots resistance in Ireland by groups like CHASE and Ringaskiddy Residents’ Association in Cork and other groups in Tipperary, Waterford and Limerick.

As a member of the European Parliament’s environment committee I’m glad to say I did my bit to prevent incineration being reclassified as recovery in the vote on the waste framework directive.

Kathy Sinnott

MEP

European Parliament

Strasbourg