FACT
The proposed incinerator for Poolbeg is part of the Dublin Waste Plan. The Plan includes 59% recycling of household/municipal waste, 25% thermal treatment, generating energy to make electricity and 16% landfill. (Recycling rates in Dublin are 20% and rising.) Traditionally 95% of waste was landfilled. The Plan will see landfill reserved for residual waste that cannot be recycled or thermally treated.

FACT
No Planning application has yet been lodged. A service Provider will be selected by Dublin City Council later this year and will prepare and submit Planning and Licensing Applications to An Bord Plean·la and the Environmental Protection Agency. These two independent bodies (not the Minister for the Environment, nor Dublin City Council, nor the Dublin City Manager) will decide whether or not a thermal treatment plant can be built on the proposed site.

MYTH
Proposed plant will be the biggest in Europe.

FACT
By European standards, the proposed plant will be of average size only.
It will handle approx. 500,000 of non-hazardous waste - 25% of what is generated in the Dublin region annually.
(Amsterdam has a plant capable of treating 800,000 tonnes, Rotterdam 1.2million tonnes, Paris 800,000 tonnes and London 450,000 tonnes)

MYTH
There will be between 500-800 truck movements to/from the plant each day.

FACT
Estimated truck movements to and from the plant will be 400 a day, based on a 500,000 tonne plant. This represents a very small increase on current traffic levels in the area.

MYTH
The waste ash from the thermal treatment plant is toxic.

FACT: The volume of waste is reduced by 90% (75% by weight) in modern thermal treatment plants. Most of the ash is non-hazardous and is recycled in road construction. 1% of the original volume of waste is hazardous and will be disposed of in an environmentally sustainable manner.

For further information: Elizabeth Arnett
Dublin City Council Regional Office
Cambridge Road
Tel: 01 282 5918
www.dublinwastetoenergy.ie