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Ireland’s Environment – An Assessment 2016
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Waste Management Capacity
If Ireland is largely dependent on an export market
for treatment of our recyclable waste, and has no
developed national capacity, we are vulnerable to
external forces.
Ireland has pioneered economic initiatives which have
changed consumer behaviour and prevented waste
(e.g. the plastic bag levy). Our National Waste Prevention
Programme is well established and an example of best
practice (EEA 2014, 2015b). Ireland should seek to be
innovative in embracing the concept of the circular
economy to drive sustainable competitiveness and
maximise green growth opportunities.
Ireland is largely dependent on export market for
treatment of our recyclable waste, and has limited
developed national capacity. Consequently we are
vulnerable to external forces such as competition, capacity,
currency fluctuations and any changes to policy in the EU.
The DECLG discussion paper titled
Exporting a Resource
Opportunity? Measures to Maximize Resource Efficiency
and Jobs in Ireland
contributes to putting forward
solutions to resolving this self-sufficiency gap in dealing
with the waste generated in our homes and businesses.
Ireland has some notable waste infrastructure deficits, such
as the lack of a hazardous waste landfill, and has limited
current available capacity in other infrastructure. Built
landfill capacity is at a critical state with potentially less
than 1 year’s capacity, based on the 2015 fill rate. There
was a 10-fold increase in residual waste exported for use
as a fuel in the period between 2010 and 2014.
Another challenge will be adequately addressing how
we safely manage and recover End-of-Life Vehicles and
Batteries and Accumulators. Coordinated and concerted
effort by producers, compliance schemes, regulators and
the waste industry will be necessary to address this risk.
In addition, Local and Regional Authorities will need to
achieve the targets set out in their 2015‑2021 Regional
Waste Management Plans.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Business and institutional leaders have a social
responsibility to become thought and action leaders
in delivering the low-carbon sustainable society and
economy we need.
The economy is dependent on a healthy and well-
protected environment to be competitive and to
grow. Clean water, effective waste water and waste
management and clear rules on environmental
performance all support the economy. Systemic change
is needed to realise a transition to a low-carbon,
resource-efficient economy and society. There is growing
evidence of decarbonisation, resource efficiency and
green growth in the national economic performance.
This type of change needs, however, to happen at a
much faster and more sustained pace. Business and
institutional leaders need to measure and report on
their environmental footprint alongside their economic
performance and have a social responsibility to become
leaders in delivering the low-carbon sustainable society
and economy we need.
Environmentally Harmful Subsidies
The EU roadmap includes a milestone that “by 2020
environmentally harmful subsidies will be phased out,
with due regard to the impact on people in need”.
Environmentally harmful subsidies (via taxation, transfers,
or other market interventions) are causing environmental
harm. This is not sustainable. A recent International
Monetary Fund (IMF) report states that environmentally
harmful subsidies aggravate climate change and worsen
local pollution and congestion; for example, in Ireland,
we spend $1.2 billion on fossil fuel subsidies, or $261 per
head (IMF, 2015). This is just one example of subsidies that
distort the market and stifle innovation.
The EU Resource Efficiency Roadmap (2011) requests that
urgent attention be applied to the phasing out, by 2020,
of environmentally harmful subsidies at a national level.
Environmentally harmful subsidies lead to higher levels of
waste and, polluting emissions (including climate change
gases), inefficient resource extraction and negative impacts
on biodiversity.
In Ireland, this requires the identification, and phasing-out
(or reformulating), of existing subsidies, transfers, state
aids and tax exemptions which offer support for emissions
that contribute to harming the environment (i.e. negative
environmental externalities).
Agriculture
We need policies to promote the right farming in the
right place.
One of the key challenges for the agriculture sector is to
foster the vision of the right farming in the right place.
With the plans for expansion of agricultural output under
Food Wise 2025, there is a need to ensure sustainability
of the sector for both economic growth and environmental
protection. This planned growth cannot be uniform
across the country, and regional and local factors need
to determine where intensification will take place. This
will require a more location-specific and prioritised
actions to address the pressure agriculture places on
the environment.
The environmental credentials of agriculture, along with
aquaculture, need to be measurable and benchmarked to
demonstrate our commitments to expanding in a manner
that would not result in long-term degradation of our natural
environment (EPA, 2015h). This would be bad for both the
agri-sector and Ireland as a whole. Projects implementing this
benchmarking process, such as the Bord Bia Origin Green
programme (Bord Bia, 2015), are under way.