Waste disposal crisis requires action

Comment Anne ButlerIn the Republic, many people talk a lot of rubbish when it comes to municipal waste disposal. We produce an average of 398kg of household waste for every man, woman and child in the State, and we are now faced with a national crisis in disposing of that waste.

Local authority landfills are rapidly running out of capacity and we have a major problem of illegal waste disposal. Witness the litany of illegal landfills uncovered around the State over the past few years.

The most recent figures from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) show that 420,000 tonnes of waste (mainly hazardous waste) was exported for disposal/treatment in 2003 - about a third of which was incinerated. An additional 860,000 tonnes was exported for recycling in the same year, some of it going as far away as China.

In 2003, according to data from the EPA National Waste Management database, a further 287,000 tonnes of household rubbish was unaccounted for - an increase of 15 per cent on the previous year. How much of it was dumped on back roads, boreens or woodlands, or incinerated in backyard fires - the biggest source of dioxin emissions in the State?

Yet, a furore erupts every time a local authority tries to get permission for a new, modern engineered landfill. And the mere mention of the dreaded "i" word (incineration) is enough to get the skull-and-crossbones posters up on every lamp post.

So how are we to come to terms with this national myopia? It is long past time that we faced reality.

We cannot go on producing more and more waste, and complain when modern, engineered waste solutions that are the norm in every other EU member state are proposed. Waste will not just disappear; zero waste may be a comforting mantra, but it is not a solution.

There have been massive improvements in waste management in recent years.

We have gone from town dumps (holes in the ground) to engineered landfill where leachate (the liquid produced as waste decomposes) is collected so that it cannot contaminate ground water, and where the gas generated during waste decomposition is either collected and used to generate energy, or is flared to avoid nuisance. This is a remarkable improvement over a relatively short period of time but some people conveniently ignore it.

We have also improved our recycling of materials and have modern facilities in place for this purpose. Granted, some areas are better served than others in this regard, but we are improving.

The combined household and commercial waste recovery rate increased from 21 per cent in 2002 to 28.4 per cent in 2003. The national target is to reach a recovery rate of 35 per cent by 2013. Even more progress has been made with the recovery of packaging waste - 42 per cent in 2003 with a national target of 50 per cent by 2013.

All of these improvements have cost money and we are paying an average of €155 per tonne to deal with household or municipal waste, whilst it typically costs €60 per tonne in the UK.

Naturally householders are complaining of costs, while industry here is being competitively disadvantaged by the very high cost of disposal. The costs need not be so high.

We can do more in terms of waste minimisation and we've shown our ability to respond to financial incentives. When the 15 cent plastic bag levy was introduced we took re-usable bags with us to the shops. When the pay by weight/lift charges for our bins were introduced, we took to recycling.

Consumers can shop more wisely looking for goods with less packaging, goods made from recycled materials or of materials that are recyclable. New food packaging technologies are producing biodegradable film made with pectin and starch, and maize impregnated plastic that will break down much more quickly than the 300 years it can take the average bin bag to decompose.

However, we are still left with what to do with all those hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste we leave out for collection. And landfill is not the most economical, efficient or sustainable way of disposing of municipal waste, assuming we have already done our utmost to reduce, re-use and recycle. Incineration can be a better option than landfill as it is possible to recover energy in the process.

The reality is that modern incineration of municipal waste is a safe technology, where emissions, including dioxins, are minuscule, measurable and do not pose a community health risk.

Last Friday's report in The Irish Times of the Huisvuilcentrale incinerator near Amsterdam, built in a farming area, and recycling electricity and heating to local factories and businesses, should give Irish people cause to pause.

People are rightly concerned about the effects of emissions from incineration plants. But we could follow a policy similar to the Dutch plant, with the posting of emission and operator readings on the internet for everyone to monitor and so meet the public's legitimate concerns.

As professionals involved in this area, the Institution of Engineers believes that the time for talking rubbish is over. We need action.

The Government needs to set about ensuring that a full range of waste facilities is in place around the State, including facilities for recycling, waste recovery, composting, landfill and incineration. We need an integrated waste management infrastructure as good as that in other developed countries.

In 2000, and again in 2002, the Institution of Engineers made recommendations to Government on the need for a national waste management strategy. Such a strategy would ensure that the overall approach to waste management is consistent, provide guidance to the regional plans, ensure that everyone has access to the necessary facilities and that the national targets are met.

We also believe the much-talked-about Strategic Infrastructure Bill needs to be adopted quickly so that new waste facilities will not continue to take five years and more to deliver.

The time for talking is over. Let's deal with the problem now.

Anne Butler is the new president of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland, and a former director of the Environmental Protection Agency