A major new research programme at NUI Galway is investigating more eco-friendly methods of disposal including the removal of greenhouse gases from waste water and an increase in the reuse and recycling of waste.
Heading up the project is Prof Emer Colleran, chair of microbiology at NUI Galway and a former chair of An Taisce. She has gained international recognition for her work in environmental microbiology over the past 20 years.
The programme is one of 35 research projects ongoing at the new Environmental Change Institute which was set up at the university last year under the Higher Education Authority's Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions with Prof Colleran as director.
A new building to house the Institute will be completed in a year's time and £8 million in funding has been allocated to environmental change research there over the next three years.
The seven main areas of re search targeted by the Institute are biodiversity, climate change, marine environment, waste, social and economic impact and human impact on changes to the environment. More than 50 post-graduate students from a range of faculties including science and engineering are involved in the research programmes at the institute.
Prof Colleran believes that instead of regarding waste as something to be gotten rid of, we should be looking at getting something back from it. Her research examines the use of environmentally benign manufacturing processes which involve the design of more recyclable components.
Surprisingly, she is not an incinerator opponent as are many of her fellow environmentalists. She believes that well run modern incinerators are perfectly acceptable and safe.
Countries with very good environmental records, including Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany, use incineration. The evidence of our concern for the environment in Ireland is not impressive, we are light years behind these countries, she says.
Prof Colleran does agree however with concerns about how introducing the "easy" solution of incineration could prevent the waste-reduction and recycling strategies which are only starting to take off. With only 7 per cent of domestic waste being recycled here, the State still has a long way to go to catch up with the Nordic countries where householders are legally obliged to separate waste in their homes.
The bottom line is waste minimisation, she believes.
"I can't understand why we are still using plastic bags the way we do in supermarkets. This is totally out of line with every country in Europe where they have introduced regulations to ban free plastic bags. People bring their own bags or trolleys or pay for plastic bags," she says.
Dr Colleran agrees that nobody wants a landfill site, incinerator or bottle bank in their back garden, but she says people have to be realistic and accept that the waste they generate has to be managed somewhere.
Dr Colleran's particular area of interest is the generation of renewable energy and the subsequent reduction of fossil-fuel use and harmful emissions. Most industrial and domestic waste waters are treated aerobically, i.e. by growing organisms in the waste water which break down pollution leaving clean water.
The aeration tanks used in this process require a lot of energy and the bacterial organisms form a waste sludge which poses disposal problems. Oxygen-free or anaerobic digestion occurs below the surface without aeration. The organisms do not use up oxygen, instead producing a usable energy source, methane gas.
If this gas is released into the atmosphere, it can cause major problems in terms of global warming but it can actually be used to generate electricity, as an industrial source of energy or can be purified and injected into the national gas grid.
Three industrial anaerobic digesters are working at full scale in Ireland, in north Kerry, Carberry, Co Cork and Ringaskiddy and there is a renewed interest in anaerobic digesters for sewage treatment. Four years ago, there was only one anaerobic sewage digester in the Republic at Tullamore but five or six of the newer sewage treatment works have gone for anaerobic systems, including the one on Mutton Island in Galway, she says.
In Denmark and other northern and eastern European countries, a system of centralised anaerobic digester plants had been introduced over the past 10 years. Farmers bring their waste to a small number of relatively large well-managed plants which produce large quantities of gas which is used to generate electricity.
Dr Colleran believes this system could work well in a country the size of Ireland. The EPA has commissioned a feasibility study to see how such a system would work here. "In less than 10 years, over 1,000 small digesters have been built at farming level in Germany and there is interest here.
"Three digesters are currently in operation in Ireland and we are getting a lot of phone calls at the institute from people who are interested in the concept."