Sir, Exactly one year ago, what was then titled the Waste Bill (now the Waste Management Bill) was published. At the time of writing it is still not law, while Dublin's waste crisis becomes progressively worse.
Between 1986 and 1996 the amount of waste dumped in landfills in Ireland increased by nearly one third, and the amount is still rising. According to Global Action Plan, the average Irish household throws out about 100 black bags of waste every year. That's about 16kgs of waste per person every week. Many of our landfill sites are on the point of overflowing, and communities across the country are - quite rightly - objecting to plans to site dumps in their areas.
The formulating stages of the Waste Management Bill provided the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, with an opportunity to deal properly with the crisis. The end result is deeply disappointing, with the Bill's emphasis on a voluntary code and its low reduction and recycling targets pointing to a fundamental weakness. The impression will no doubt be given by the Minister that the waste problem in Ireland is being seriously tackled, when the reality is that a golden opportunity is being lost.
There is a widely accepted hierarchy in the waste management stream, a hierarchy which the Waste Management Bill hardly begins to address. It begins with waste minimisation at source. What is required is nothing short of a radical change in the way we as a nation look upon our waste: from end of cycle waste management towards the creation of a society which produces a minimal amount of unusable waste.
For example, businesses which produce unnecessary waste should be penalised, while at the same time encouraged - by generous subsidies if that is what it takes - to invest in clean technologies and in sustainable - product development. By designing products which fulfil real need and cause no harm in their production, use and disposal, product designers can re educate, society and promote products which are useful and uplifting.
Parallel to this radical shift towards sustainable product development must run an intelligent and persuasive public educational campaign so that, in time, all consumers will be able to recognise a responsible product.
But what is to be done with the waste we are currently producing? Almost all of it can be dealt with by means of re use, recycling and composting. In Lemsterland in the Netherlands, only 14 per cent of waste is landfilled, and none is incinerated. This is achieved by a separate collection system using eight different categories of waste, collected in a variety of ways.
Each household has two wheeled bins, collected on alternate weeks. Each of these is divided into two sections - one for organic waste, one for paper and card, one for cans, plastic containers and drinks cartons, and the fourth for the residue. Glass and textiles are collected through bottle banks, and bulky rubbish is collected in special monthly collections. Each household is also given a box to hold household hazardous waste and this is collected by a special ear, or can be delivered to a central depot.
The forthcoming Waste Management Bill can be used by the Minister as enabling legislation to introduce tough but necessary measures to turn our waste crisis around and into something positive. Ireland could, for example, quite easily become a world leader in clean technologies, if the political vision was there. However, until that vision comes to the surface, the current crisis will be prolonged into an ongoing, chronic series of crises, and a running battle between communities and those who wish to dump near them. - Yours, etc.,
Spokesperson on the
Environment,
Green Party,
Upper Fownes Street,
Dublin 2.