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Ireland’s Environment 2012
60
Introduction
Waste management continues to
be a central issue for policy makers
in Ireland and the EU. Resource
use and waste generation are at
unsustainable levels throughout
the EU (EEA, 2010). Raw material
consumption in Europe is 16 t per
person, with 6 t of this ending up as
waste (EEA, 2010).
The past decade has seen significant
changes in relation to how waste is
managed in Ireland. The policy and
regulatory regime developed in this
period has yielded significant and
measurable improvements. Ireland
has moved quickly from a position
of almost total reliance on landfill
for managing waste to a system
of sophisticated post-collection
treatment, yielding higher levels of
recovery of many recyclable waste
materials.
Although the recent recession has
impacted on generation of certain
waste streams (e.g. commercial,
construction and demolition), EU
legislation and policy as implemented
continues to be a primary driver
of change in relation to waste
management practices in Ireland:
such policy deals with general issues
of waste management, as well
as permitting, enforcement and
reporting. A second key driver is the
landfill levy; its introduction in 2002
was mirrored by a downward trend
in the percentage of municipal waste
disposed. In addition, the EU has
a range of both waste-stream and
substance-specific producer/holder
responsibility control frameworks,
that have resulted in significant
improvement in the management of
certain recoverable or problematic
wastes (e.g. packaging and waste
electrical and electronic equipment
(WEEE)).
Waste management has become
hugely complex in recent years.
The past five years has seen the
introduction to the national waste
management arrangements of
a large number of collectors,
intermediary processors, transfer
and treatment activities. Waste
generation and management in
Ireland are reviewed annually in the
EPA National Waste Reports. An
update is published each year, with
a full industrial waste survey being
conducted every second year. Data
for the national waste reporting
come from thousands of returns and
surveys of waste producers, handlers
and disposal/recovery activities
nationally and internationally, as
well as from a range of compliance
schemes.
The Current Situation
Economic Changes and Waste
Generation
The Irish economy grew strongly
between 2000 and 2007 but has
contracted sharply since then. One
macroeconomic measure of resource
use – domestic material consumption
(DMC) – peaked in 2007 at over 50 t
per person in Ireland compared to an
EU average of 16 t per person (EEA,
2010). This largely reflects the building
boom at the time. Even allowing for
the building boom, the data would
suggest that Ireland has a considerable
distance to go in relation to ensuring
sustainable production and
consumption patterns.
Figure 5.1 shows the most up-to-
date information for the principal
categories of waste arising in Ireland,
which amounts to 11.8 million
tonnes (EPA, 2009a, 2012a).
Figure 5.1
Principal Sources of Waste in Ireland (Source: EPA)
Industrial Process Waste
54%
Principal Waste Streams in Ireland
11.8 Mt total
6.4 Mt total
Household Municipal Waste
14%
C&D Waste (inc. contaminated soils)
22%
Commercial Municipal Waste
10%
Mining & Mineral Processing
53%
Makeup of Industrial Process Wastes
Food & Beverage Processing (e.g. sludges)
25%
Energy Generation (ashes)
5%
Other
17%