We need a radical overhaul of waste policy
Successive Irish governments have totally and abjectly failed to make any concerted planned provision for the waste crisis which has been building in this country for decades and particularly for the past 10 years.
Despite all the fine words and strategic plans, at the 11th hour the present Government has foisted on us a plan to build a series of incinerators around the country with the inevitable result that we will all be subjected to increased concentrations of one of the most subtle, toxic, persistent, and bio-accumulative substances known to man, dioxins.
Don’t even mention PM10s and PM2.5s - which the best modern technology is unable to scrub from the emissions - or heavy metals!
It may be the cheapest plan in pure fiscal terms, for this government but the medium and long term costs arising from ill-health and contamination of our food supply will be a curse on our children and grandchildren and their children.
Mass-burn municipal solid waste [MSW] incinerators worldwide are known to be one of the main sources of dioxins in the environment, and are the major source in all countries that do not have serious concentrations of heavy industry, like Ireland.
There are moves afoot in the US to measure and certify the dioxin content in all meats destined for human consumption. Is this the road we wish to travel? What is required is urgent major infrastructural development, eschewing mass burn incineration, similar to that which has existed in many European countries for years.
Currently the only place in Cork city or county one can safely dispose of a television set is the excellent re-cycling centre in a solitary provincial town, for a fee of €25. TVs and other electronic items are known to be a source of some highly toxic and persistent substances such as arsenic lead and mercury. How many people are going to drive perhaps 60 miles or more and pay €25 to get rid of their obsolete electronic / electrical equipment?
Even the lesser charges for ‘normal’ domestic waste at the Kinsale Road facility in Cork city are an incentive to ‘fly-dumping’. And, of course, no facilities are open on Sundays.
It’s no wonder the farmers around the country are complaining about what they are finding in a corner of a field or in a gateway. The situation can only continue to deteriorate until a major upgrading of our waste management infrastructure is in place. No doubt in addition to serious threats to our health, we will be saddled with fines of millions of euros from the EU. The situation is a very bad joke.
Dr Philip Michael
Millbrook Medical Centre
Bandon
Co Cork
