More than 500 calls from people concerned about illegal dumping were made last month to a new confidential phone line established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The number of calls would indicate a serious problem exists in terms of small-scale domestic dumping and organised "flytipping" and the Government will have to allocate extra resources to deal with it.
Establishing a confidential phone line is only the first step in identifying the extent of the problem and trying to deal with it. Unfortunately, the fragmented nature of the enforcement process may create considerable difficulties. Phone calls are received by a private company that passes on the information to local authorities, to the EPA and to the Garda Síochána, depending on the scale and nature of the dumping offence. But there is no indication how many of those public complaints are being followed up or are likely to lead to prosecutions. That is the nub of the problem. Without extra staff and funding, the agencies concerned are unlikely to be able to respond effectively.
In its latest report, the EPA identified flytipping by unlicensed van collectors and householders, along with backyard waste burning, as the new face of illegal waste activity and said they constituted a "significant problem". In spite of that, not enough is being done to deal with the practices. As things stand, nearly one-quarter of all households are not provided with an official refuse collection service because of a refusal to pay charges or arising from their relative isolation in the countryside. Those homes generate an estimated 300,000 tonnes of rubbish a year. And that material finds its way into roadside dumps and hedgerows or is disposed of by burning. Until the Government addresses this difficult area and deals with it through new legislation and prosecutions, illegal dumping and burning will continue.
Progress has been made in other areas. Large-scale illegal dumping is said to have ended. And the recycling of glass and other materials has exceeded targets. In spite of that, three-quarters of the waste collected in the Dublin area is still landfilled. And the city will run out of landfill space by 2008. These are immediate and urgent problems.
Minister for the Environment Dick Roche has described the new confidential phone line as "a final turning point in the battle dealing with illegal dumping". Would that it were so. It has certainly indicated the scale of the problem and shown that citizens are seriously disturbed. But, without an effective follow-up and prosecutions, we will continue to live in a dirty country.