Government strategy is to make tough decisions for more recycling and less waste, writes the Environment Minister, Martin Cullen
Ireland is in the midst of a grave waste problem. The challenge of solving it is not an easy one and we do not have the luxury of time. Tough decisions have to be made.
Waste has become a defining characteristic of our modern consumer society. The generation of waste in Ireland continues to increase, reflecting economic growth, improved manufacturing and industrial performance, increased population and changing consumption patterns.
In excess of 2.2 million tonnes of municipal waste was generated in 2000, an increase of about 20 per cent in just two years. The average Irish individual generates about 580kg of municipal waste per annum, far in excess of our EU neighbours.
Yet we are poorly equipped to deal effectively with this waste stream. We have a limited recycling infrastructure, almost no biological treatment capability and no means of recovering energy from waste.
Even though the amount of waste recycled has increased in recent years, we recycled only 12 per cent of municipal waste in 2000. Holland recycles 45 per cent, Germany 42 per cent. The remaining 88 per cent of our municipal waste was landfilled, often in small and inadequate facilities. This situation cannot continue. Modernising waste management is now a key priority.
Effective waste management is one of the most complex and problematic environmental challenges facing us. There is no magic wand, no soft option. Delivery of waste services and infrastructure are in many respects inherently more complex than those arising with other environmental services. Waste streams are very diverse, and their management requires consideration of a wide range of environmental, economic and market-related issues.
At the same time, waste treatment options are controversial, and there is strong public opposition to proposals for any significant waste infrastructure. Indeed, as recent cases illustrate, even proposals for relatively benign bottle banks and recycling centres attract criticism.
Sound waste management presents significant environmental and lifestyle challenges: nonetheless they must be confronted. In the first instance, strenuous efforts must be made and innovative approaches implemented if we are to halt and in time reverse the link between waste generation and economic growth. Our objective must be to give practical effect, by means of fiscal and other measures, to the internationally recognised waste hierarchy, which prioritises waste prevention and minimisation.
And for waste that cannot be avoided, we need to develop an integrated management infrastructure that utilises a range of available treatment technologies to underpin better service provision, not just by local authorities, but by an emerging private waste industry.
There is already a sound policy foundation on which to build. Changing our Ways (1998) set the basis for a strategic regional planning process, emphasising the need for a dramatic reduction in reliance on landfill, in favour of a range of preferable waste treatment options. This policy approach was further developed in Preventing and Recycling Waste: Delivering Change (2002), which provides for a package of new initiatives, funding and revised organisational structures to deliver accelerated change.
Contrary to opinion, real progress has been achieved in recent years:
- Segregated collection of household waste has been rolled out in many areas including Galway, Co Waterford and parts of Tipperary, Louth, Meath and Kildare. In Dublin alone, 180,000 households now have segregated waste collection.
- We now have over 1,300 bring banks, compared with 400 in 1994.
- Most areas of the country are serviced by recycling centres.
- Last year we recycled over 200,000 tonnes of packaging waste and reached our national target of 25 per cent recycling as laid down in the European Packaging Waste Directive;
- The plastic-bag levy has had a dramatic effect on our shopping habits and has reduced our use of plastic bags by up to 90 per cent.
The mindset is changing. The challenge now is to make further, rapid improvements. The corner stone of any future improvement is the regional waste management plans.
These, in line with Government policy and reflecting best international practice, have now been adopted across the country. The plans are designed to tackle the waste problem comprehensively. They include:
Segregation at source and separate collection of recyclable and organic materials in all significant urban areas.
Extended networks of "bring bank" facilities for recyclable materials, especially in rural areas, with a target density of one bring bank for every 500 to 1,000 people.
- Recycling centres and waste transfer stations.
- Biological treatment of "green" and organic household waste.
- Materials recovery facilities for dry recyclables.
- Thermal treatment facilities.
- Residual landfill requirements.
Typically, these regional plans anticipate the recycling/composting of between 40 per cent and 50 per cent of waste, thermal treatment of up to 40 per cent and landfill for the balance of residual wastes. We now need to drive forward the implementation of these plans, in an intensive way, right across the country. All players must pull in the same direction and with the same degree of focus and urgency.
For my part, I am determined to provide the necessary national leadership to secure effective plan implementation and pursue the development of innovative and practical solutions to our waste problem.
This will entail further policy initiatives, new organisational structures, increased resources and effective legislation. It is my intention to commence action to this end later this autumn.
Among my early priorities is to provide for a new Office of Environmental Enforcement to address the clear need for better and more consistent compliance with waste and other environmental legislation.
Other contributors in this series espouse a "zero-waste" strategy. In part, this is shorthand for a range of policies and measures to minimise waste generation and maximise recycling. These are laudable objectives, entirely consistent with Government policy, and we are currently pursuing many of the specific policy measures proposed.
However, it is one thing to aspire to eliminate the disposal of waste over a period of one or two decades, It is quite another to seek to impose a moratorium on the development of thermal treatment or landfill capacity while we pursue such aspirations.
We must be practical. We must take our decisions based on reality and experience, not aspiration. The fact is that we cannot prevent and recycle all waste. There will always be residual waste, which must either be thermally treated or landfilled. We must address that reality.
Regional waste management plans are not just about incineration. They are about better services for the regions, delivering a much higher recycling performance, recovering energy from waste which cannot be recycled and using landfill as the last resort for residual wastes which cannot otherwise be recovered. Thermal treatment of waste, whether by incineration or other technologies, is only one component of this integrated infrastructure.
In this context, I want to dispel some common misconceptions. Thermal treatment is not anti-recycling. At the heart of the regional waste management plans is recycling. We must first provide for maximum achievable recycling: the average recycling target is typically between 40 per cent and 45 per cent. And only then do they give consideration to thermal treatment and landfill of the remaining waste. Other environmentally progressive countries achieve high recycling levels alongside incineration.
Any new thermal treatment facilities will be subject to full environmental impact assessment, planning controls and a rigorous environmental licensing system operated by the Environmental Protection Agency.
To conclude,I am committed to firm action on waste management. As Minister, I intend to provide the necessary leadership at national level. I will speak plainly and act without fear or favour, in the overall national interest.
I hope and expect that others in a position of influence and political leadership at community, local and regional level will take an equally responsible and pragmatic approach and support the necessary measures which we know must be undertaken.
We are coming from behind in relation to waste management. We have much to do to catch up with our European neighbours. However, building on the work already undertaken, I am confident that, within the next five years, we can together effect a step change for the better in our management of waste.