Blue Circle Southern Cement has produced two reports to back its controversial plan to burn waste at its New Berrima plant in the NSW Southern Highlands.
The company says a report by the Commonwealth Department of the Environment, completed this year, shows cement production contributes to less than half a per cent of the dioxin levels across the country.
A second report, prepared by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), sets out the best way for cement plants to operate with reduced dioxin emissions.
Blue Circle Southern Cement plant manager Ian Unsworth says by using strict guidelines, fuels such as tyres and other waste can be burnt at the plant without creating high dioxin emissions.
"The practices used [by] the plant, the cement plant of a similar type to ours, produces the best results in terms of reduction of emissions. It concluded very importantly that burning waste in kilns did not have an impact on dioxin formation," he said.
