16 May 2006

Environment

Incineration & Greenhouse Gases

Ciarán Cuffe asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he will provide data for the amount of greenhouse gas emissions arising on a lifecycle basis from landfilling versus the mass-burn incineration of municipal waste; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (Mr. Roche): In July 2001, the European Commission published a study of Waste Management Options and Climate Change. The full report can be accessed at http://ec.europa.eu/comm/environment/waste/studies/climate_change.htm

Paragraph 3.1.2 of the report concludes that mass burn incineration of municipal solid waste, without energy recovery, gives lower net greenhouse gas fluxes than landfilling with EU-average standards of gas collection. In general, incineration options which include energy recovery have lower net greenhouse gas fluxes than landfills with best practice standards, the exception being where the energy generated replaces that generated by wind turbines.

The life cycle of products up to the point of disposal is the same for landfilling and incineration, and is not relevant to a decision between the two disposal options.