GALWAY for a SAFE ENVIRONMENT
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Thursday, April 27th , 2000
Galway for a Safe Environment (GSE) Residents for a Responsible Waste Management Policy Thursday, April 27th , 2000 Galway Can Reach Recycling Targets of 70% over 6 to 7 Years First Step is to Forget About the Incinerator Proposal "Galway and Connacht can reach recycling rates of up to 70% over the next 6 to 7 years, by simply following the example of communities all over the industrialised world, with the first step being to forget about building an incinerator". This was the message given to a crowded meeting on recycling held in the Oranmore Lodge Hotel last night. The meeting, which was organised by Galway for a Safe Environment, was addressed by London-based recycling expert, Mr. Keith Collins, a partner in the waste-management consulting firm, Ecologika. Mr. Collins said that Ireland and Britain, with current re-cycling rates of below 10%, were lagging far behind their industrial peers, particularly the USA, Canada, and Australia. He gave examples of communities in North America that had achieved recycling rates from 60% to 82%, over the past 10 years. The Australian capital, Canberra, had adopted the aim of achieving zero-waste by the year 2010. "All over the world, communities have faced waste-management crises, just like that now faced by Ireland, as landfill becomes unacceptable. In nearly all cases, the response of the old, waste-management industry has been to try and replace landfill with incineration, and in all cases of communities that have achieved high recycling rates, the people have fought tooth and nail against incineration, because of its high cost, and danger to health" Mr. Collins gave the example of Nova Scotia, an area of Canada which has mandated drastic cuts in landfill by law, similar to those now being enacted by the EU. Nova Scotia is similar in economic, geographic and population terms to Connacht. "Five years ago, a proposal to build an incinerator was defeated by popular opinion, and now they had reached over 50% recycling, from a base of 0% at the start." In an earlier private meeting with Galway City and County Councillors and TDs, Mr. Collins appealed to local representatives not to invest the future of Galway in an expensive incinerator, which would have to be fed large amounts of rubbish for the next 25 years, at ever-increasing cost. "The incineration industry is dying on its feet, all over the world", he said, "as it struggles to meet with new emissions and ash toxicity standards. He predicted that the proposal to build an incinerator in Galway would be stopped by massive public opposition, as it had all over the world, and that the recycling option was the way to go for Galway and Connacht. Confirmation: Conchúr Ó Brádaigh, 087-2830452 Áine Suttle, 091-581047 <!-- HTML Markup endspan --> </td> </tr> </table> <a name=bottom></a> </body> </html>