Sir, - I was disappointed to read your Editorial of July 28th, "Disposing of Waste". Given that your paper has a well-deserved reputation for promoting greater public awareness of environmental issues, I was surprised at the superficial analysis which was advanced on the serious waste problems which face this country. The final lines of your Editorial read: "Legitimate questions have been raised about thermal treatment, particularly the emission of dioxins. But it still makes more sense, even environmentally, than having to find new holes in the ground in which to deposit the detritus of our prosperous times."
Your Editorial does not appear to recognise that the pursuit of a sustainable and environmentally-responsible approach to waste management is the real challenge facing this country, as opposed to an expedient solution to the issue of waste disposal. As a result, your paper reduced the complicated question of waste management to a simple choice between landfill or incineration.
Not surprisingly, all of the major political parties also subscribe to this grossly overly-simplified analysis of the waste problem. This is despite the fact that "the waste hierarchy", upon which our national waste legislation is based, identifies waste prevention, minimisation and recycling as the policy approaches which should take precedence over incineration and landfill. One might ask why our politicians appear to be so reluctant to implement waste management strategies which have been endorsed by the EU, which would radically reduce the amount of waste which we are producing and which would significantly lessen the necessity to create new superdumps or incinerators around the country.
It seems clear that politicians' reluctance to pursue enlightened waste management policies stems from their awareness that the implementation of these policies would require industry to make radical changes in areas such as product design and production processes. Given that most of our political parties are funded by business or industry, it is unlikely that these parties will do anything more than pay unconvincing lip-service to the aims of waste prevention or minimisation.
Fortunately, many community groups across the country who have become involved in campaigns opposing superdumps and incinerators have become highly politicised in the process. They have organised under the umbrella group "Zero Waste Ireland". This group is attempting to emulate the example of certain states in Canada and Australia by actively promoting the goal of zero waste production through waste prevention, minimisation, re-use and recycling. There is generally a great willingness among the Irish public to participate in recycling schemes and in other environmentally-friendly waste management practices. However if our politicians do not belatedly begin to show some responsible political leadership with regard to the waste issue, no amount of good will amongst the public will have any real effect on the growing waste problems which now confronts us. - Yours, etc.,
Deirdre De Burca (Green Party), Oaklands, Greystones, Co Wicklow.