Reviewing waste
agendaNi looks to the South where a major review of waste is shaping new policy.
Waste is high on the agenda in the Republic, partly due to the Green party leader John Gormley’s involvement in the coalition government.
The fact that the Irish tax-payer will have to spend €36 million in repatriating 250,000 tonnes of Irish waste that was illegally dumped on 20 sites in Northern Ireland between 2002 and 2004, through fines, has also brought waste into the spotlight.
Illegal dumping occurred when a landfill levy of €15 per tonne was introduced in 2002, prompting an increase in gate fees charged by legal landfill operators to around € 200, compared to € 50 a tonne in Northern Ireland. The landfill levy in the Republic is now €30 and Gormley believes that illegal dumping is no longer taking place.
Three consultations are running concurrently until 1 October this year following a major review which looked at all aspects of Ireland’s waste management policy.
Building recommendations – that Ireland must move away from traditional landfill and mass burn incineration towards recycling and mechanical biological treatment, and that energy from waste technologies must be explored – Gormley announced a draft national waste policy in July, and the first consultation deals with that.
The draft waste policy proposes that an incineration waste levy be introduced to ensure that waste is sent to composting and recycling treatment facilities as a priority. Levies for other treatment facilities would be introduced in 2014. In addition, punitive fines would be placed on local authorities that do not prevent waste from going to landfill or incinerator sites.
A national waste framework would be established to replace the 10 current waste management regions and the waste regulatory functions of local authorities would be rationalised under a single nationally administered body.
Local authorities would have to collect the waste themselves or tender the service to a professional body because local waste monopolies and poor waste services have become common. A minimum standard of service would be required, for example, paper for recycling every fortnight and food waste composted at least weekly.
Site waste management plans, where a specified level of environmental performance must be met, would be placed on developers of residential developments of 10 or more; public facilities with a floor area in excess of 1,250m2 and civil engineering projects producing more than 300m3 of waste.
The second consultation deals with draft regulations which would see a phased introduction of food waste collections for households. This service would be carried out by authorised waste collectors in the main cities by July 2011 and in other urban areas by January 2012 and would help Ireland comply with the EU obligations for diverting biodegradable waste away from landfill.
Finally, Gormley has reopened a consultation on the environmental report dealing with capping incineration. This move comes amid a major controversy over a 600,000 tonne incinerator in Poolbeg, in Gormley’s Dublin South-East constituency. The proposed 30 per cent incineration cap would render the Poolbeg incinerator unviable because Dublin City Council are contracted to deliver 320,000 tonnes of waste per year. The council claims that the incinerator is in line with the current programme for government and if it is not completed, Ireland will incur huge fines from Europe.
Northern Ireland’s Environment Minister Edwin Poots recently said that planners had made the right decision to reject a proposal for a £40 million incinerator that would convert commercial and industrial waste into electricity and heat to be built between North Belfast and Nutts Corner. But in June 2009 he said Belfast City Council’s decision to refuse an incinerator in North Belfast was “extremely disappointing.”
Because of these conflicting messages, the UUP’s Danny Kinahan has called for an incineration debate in the region arguing that more information would help “ease fears” and foster knowledgeable decision making.
