Edwin Poots: look before you leap
Waste projects have long-lasting consequences and lessons from the past are worth learning for today, according to Environment Minister Edwin Poots.
The cautionary tale of Robert Moses formed the backdrop for Edwin Poots’ address to agendaNi’s waste management seminar. In 1948, the New York planner was acknowledged as a leading conservationist when he decided to deposit municipal waste in the city’s tidal marsh on Staten Island.
It became the Fresh Kills Landfill, with a mound eventually growing to 2.9 billion cubic feet in size and leaching an estimated 1 million gallons of toxic materials into the surrounding water table every day.
“At one level, this is yet another story of the iniquities of landfill,” he continued, but it also “reminds us how fallible we all are when it comes to taking decisions about the environment.” Many of us consider ourselves “practical and idealistic” as Moses was described at the time.
Poots stated: “That such an enormous, landfill-shaped gap exists between Robert Moses’ aspirations and the impact of those aspirations demonstrates just how easy it is for a well-intentioned environmental scheme to reap unfortunate and unforeseen consequences.”
The Environment Minister was increasingly appreciating waste management as a “barometer of our willingness to pay more than just lip service to the environment.”
He thought that Northern Ireland’s press had “a much more balanced and enlightened approach” to the issue than in other parts of the UK. Examples included the Belfast Telegraph’s ‘war on waste’ and favourable local reporting.
The challenge was to take the province’s “generally benign attitude to the environment” to the next level during a “singularly chilly economic climate.”
This generation needs to re-think waste but produces far more waste than its predecessors, he commented, yet is equally reluctant to “dip further into its pockets than is absolutely necessary” to manage waste.
As Minister, he was “totally committed” to achieving the Landfill Directive targets and his department would do “all it can” to support the delivery of infrastructure projects. That said, projects needed to demonstrate “unequivocally” that they were the optimum means of achieving those targets.
Robert Moses’ example served as a warning for environmental stakeholders who were confident in their decision- making processes.
“He thought, and his contemporaries agreed, that he was acting for the common good,” Poots explained, “yet their descendents around Staten Island are paying a heavy price for what seemed that right mix of practicality and idealism.”
The Minister had focused on ensuring that delivery structures in waste management were fit for purpose, as he felt a “huge responsibility” to avoid passing a “similar legacy” to this generation’s descendents.
Sixteen successful applications for the Rethink Waste Fund included proposals for glass collection, home composters, household waste recycling centres, and food and garden collections.
Poots was also confident that the Rethinking Waste advertising campaign would “more than repay the outlay.” He wanted waste to be seen as a “financial resource” which could be used by businesses rather than simply being a burden.
Ultimately, it was far more beneficial, economically and environmentally, to avoid creating waste in the first place. The website www.rethinkwasteni.org contains advice on that and the Minister restated his personal commitment to achieving zero waste.
“The day when no waste at all is discarded to landfill may be a long time coming. However, I think the day when we have 90 per cent diversion shouldn’t be a long time coming and [zero waste as a goal] is something that we should pursue nonetheless,” he said.
In conclusion, he again cited Moses and suggested that that “whatever direction you decide to move in to reach your environmental ambitions, you take a long hard look before you actually leap.”
