Waste collection not used by quarter of households

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has called for more regulation of waste management services after a report found a quarter of all households were not availing of a waste collection service and hundreds of tonnes of hazardous waste were going missing.

The National Waste Report 2004, released this morning, reveals that 453 tonnes of hazardous waste went unaccounted for that year, the latest for which figures are available. This would include waste considered harmful to human health.

The EPA now wants local authorities to audit waste collection and disposal firms in order to ensure their reports on the collection and disposal of waste are accurate.

The agency also wants waste management companies to be obliged to tender to local authorities for the right to collect waste and an "on the ground" investigation into what happens the estimated 227,000 tonnes of waste from households which do not avail of a collection service.

While the report found improvements in many areas - particularly in recycling - it revealed considerable difficulties with reporting skills in the industry.

The report found there was just one landfill licensed to handle hazardous waste, the KTK landfill in Co Kildare, which is authorised to accept a maximum of 3,000 tonnes of asbestos waste per year. But in 2004 local authorities and industry certified that 3,453 tonnes of hazardous waste had been landfilled.

The EPA said the figures raised questions about the destination of 453 tonnes of reportedly landfilled hazardous waste, but added that incorrect reporting was possible "and indeed likely". The report also found that progress in dealing with biodegradable waste was "relatively slow" and warned that the State has on average just eight years municipal landfill space left - with considerable regional variations.

The Dublin region, for example, had just 2.6 years remaining landfill capacity at December 2005. While its strategy is to use landfills in neighbouring Meath, Kildare and Wicklow as an interim measure, the report notes that "the two commercial incinerators recently licensed could increase the annual capacity for disposal of municipal waste".

In 2004 the Republic exported an additional 70,000 tonnes of mixed municipal waste to Germany for incineration and to Northern Ireland for composting.

The report did however reveal the 2013 target to recycle 35 per cent of municipal waste - that from households, shops and street sweepings - was almost achieved by 2004, when the percentage reached 32.6 per cent. Efforts to recycle packaging waste were even more successful, with 56 per cent of all packaging waste being recovered, exceeding the EU target of 50 per cent one year ahead of schedule.

However, the EPA noted that 74 per cent of material recycled was processed abroad and it called for the setting up of an "indigenous recycling industry" in the Republic, particularly for the recycling of glass, metals, paper and cardboard. The principal destinations for recyclable waste were Spain (metals); the UK (all materials) and Holland (paper and cardboard).

In relation to collection of accurate data from waste contractors, the report says: "It is likely that an increased emphasis on enforcement will be a feature of data compilation for national waste reports".

Minister for the Environment Dick Roche, commenting on the report, emphasised the achievements in relation to recycling, packaging and reduction in landfill, as well as large-scale increases in recycling of construction and electrical waste.