Council ponders incinerator plan

Councils need to find ways to cut the amount of rubbish going into landfill

Plans to build a rubbish incinerator in Belfast will be discussed by the City Council on Tuesday night.

It follows a public consultation in which a majority of people who replied favoured making land available for burning waste to generate energy.

The council has to decide if it will release the land for the project at the north foreshore of Belfast Lough.

Some environmentalists argue that more recycling is needed instead of burning rubbish.

Arc 21, a group of councils in the east of Northern Ireland, wants the council to accept its proposal so the facility can be built by 2016.

In a statement they said the public consultation was "a clear endorsement" of their plans.

"Energy from waste is used extensively throughout Europe with up to 400 facilities safely operating in many countries including those with high recycling rates and strong environmental credentials.

"Our proposed use of this technology will make valuable use of the material which can't physically or practically be recycled, by converting it into enough energy to supply the needs of at least 40,000 houses."

Declan Allison from Friends of the Earth said he feared that the scale of then proposed facility, which could handle 300,000 tonnes of waste a year, would undermine councils' efforts to recycle more.

"All the evidence suggests that incineration is not a good way of dealing with waste, particularly as we move towards a low carbon economy," he added.

"We have to reduce the amount of waste which is produced in the first place and then whatever waste is produced has to be reusable and recyclable before we start looking at disposal options."