Is there a genuine will to tackle waste and litter? Local authorities believe young people must be recruited to spearhead a new public consciousness and galvanise community action on one of the most pervasive environmental issues facing the State. In Cork and Kerry, the schools are becoming the battleground to win hearts and minds over to the actions needed to ensure acceptance of, and support for, reform of the waste management system.
Children as young as two are being targeted in Cork as part of a drive to raise public awareness and concern, foster more responsible behaviour towards the environment and natural resources, and create an understanding that every individual is both part of the problem and part of the solution.
Working on the premise that good habits are formed at an early age, the county's local authorities have commissioned specially designed wooden puzzles for playschools. Some creches in the Cork region are already using the puzzle, which introduces the toddlers to the use of a bottle bank, a can bank, a paper bank and a compost unit.
The hope is that, with help and advice from the minders, the children will learn the basics of managing waste and adopt good environmental practice, both at playschool and at home.
In the Kerry Diocese, Bishop Bill Murphy recently devoted the largest section of his Easter Pastoral to the pressures and dangers facing the rural environment, including "the presence of so much rubbish which is a direct threat to the landscape and to animals". He warned against "a culture of exploitation of resources which failed to respect and acknowledge the fragility of the earth and the integrity of creation" and he identified the challenge facing both individuals and communities to be more responsible and to show more care for creation.
A waste management strategy for the Cork region, spanning the 25-year period to 2020, has been published and a draft waste management plan for the next five years is at the public consultation stage. The issue of landfill sites is one of its key areas, but it emphasises the need for an integrated approach involving action on preventing, reducing, reusing and recycling waste.
In a joint approach, Cork County Council and Cork Corporation have launched an information and education campaign aimed at involving the public in the decision-making process. "The first thing is to make people aware that there is a real problem out there," says county environment officer, Mr Declan Daly.
It is estimated that landfills in the State are taking some 330,000 tonnes per year, including domestic, commercial, nonhazardous industrial waste, sludges, demolition and construction waste.
Cork County presents a challenge in terms of waste management because of its large area (2,878 square miles), its dispersed population and its many important habitats. The local authorities are approaching the crucial stage of landfill site selection - a process that inevitably generates local controversy. The county and city managers hope that through consultation, a consensus can be reached on which options to use.
Meanwhile, pilot projects have been undertaken. Some involve separation of household rubbish into coloured bags for recycling and reprocessing, others aim to encourage waste reduction by industries, businesses and households. Home composting is encouraged through a scheme in rural areas where the council supplies composting containers at a nominal charge. Four thousand containers have been distributed and the target is to involve 35,000 householders - more than a third of the county's total. The problem of farm plastics is also being tackled, with the backing of new legislation obliging manufacturers and importers of these materials - such as silage bags, bale-wrapping, silage cover-sheets - to arrange for environmentally acceptable ways of collecting and disposing of them.
Under a free recovery scheme involving farmers and the plastics industry, the first 100 tonnes of plastics collected from the mid and west Cork areas has recently been baled and exported to Scotland for recycling.
Ms Katherine Walshe, senior executive engineer with the council, admits that enforcement of the new legislation on waste management will be necessary to ensure the success of the schemes. "I think it will take very strict regulation to make them work, and it will also require good incentives - in other words, a carrot-and-stick approach," she says.
In Co Kerry, where some 50,000 tonnes of waste go to landfills annually, a waste management strategy is also being implemented. The north Kerry landfill site, north-east of Tralee, is one of only a handful of sites nationally which have been granted licences by the Environmental Protection Agency as complying with the stringent standards set by current European and Irish legislation.
This site is a major resource for the county and the local authority is determined to ensure its lifetime will be maximised. As part of this strategy, several hundred households are taking part in a rubbish separation scheme to enable composting of organic and vegetable waste on the 40-acre site.
Up to 40 per cent of domestic waste consists of organic materials, a figure which illustrates the great potential for waste reduction through the extension of such initiatives to many more of the county's 37,500 householders.
Householders have welcomed the initiative, which requires them to place organic wastes in a special brown "wheelie bin" for collection every second week. In Kerry, also, the involvement of schoolchildren through educational initiatives is seen as central to reforming public attitudes. The council's environmental education officer, Mr Micheal O Coilean, said: "My job is to go into the schools, show the children how to do it and send them home to educate their parents."