EPA - Ireland's Environment, An Integrated Assessment - 2020

Ireland’s Environment – An Integrated Assessment 2020 Table 9.8  Waste infrastructure and capacity, 2020 (Source: EPA) INFRASTRUCTURE DETAILS AUTHORISED CAPACITY COMMENTS Landfills accepting municipal and other waste for disposal and recovery a Drehid landfill Knockharley landfill Ballynagran landfill 470,000 tonnes a year b Three landfills, compared with six in 2016. Municipal waste-to-energy facilities Indaver waste-to energy facility Dublin waste-to- energy facility 835,000 tonnes a year A pyrolysis plant in Co. Offaly with a licence to process 65,000 tonnes a year is due to start operations in 2021. Co-incineration of solid recovered fuel at cement kilns Irish Cement Platin Quinn Cement Breedon Cement Ireland Limited 343,000 tonnes a year A licence application for Irish Cement Mungret is under consideration by the EPA. Composting and anaerobic digestion c 33 commercial facilities 688,000 tonnes a year Does not include industrial/ agricultural facilities that treat their own waste. Soil and stone recovery capacity >20 million tonnes 26 In 2019, waste facility permit regulations were amended to increase the threshold for recovery of inert wastes from 100,000 tonnes to 200,000 tonnes over the lifetime of a facility. Civic amenity sites 118 (96 local authority and approx. 25 private sector) Approx. 17% of household waste managed is accepted at these sites. Bring banks Approx. 1850 Pay-to-use compactors Approx. 30 a Ballaghveny landfill, operated by Tipperary County Council, is due to reopen in 2021 to accept non-municipal wastes such as non-hazardous C&D waste. b In 2018, 418,029 tonnes of municipal waste were disposed of to landfill. In that year there were five operational landfills accepting municipal waste. c In 2018, 436,000 tonnes of biodegradable waste were accepted for treatment at these sites, an increase of 15% on the 2017 tonnage. Authorised capacity reported here is based on licence/permit conditions but there may also be planning restrictions. Note authorised capacity does not always equal operational capacity, as the capacity may not be built or commissioned and may be subject to shut-down/maintenance at times. At present, registers of waste collection and facility permits are maintained by the National Waste Collection Permit Office, and the EPA maintains a register of waste sector licences. The State would benefit from a national, online, open-source register of waste infrastructure and capacity. Municipal waste disposal and thermal treatment infrastructure is concentrated in the Eastern Midlands waste region (Figure 9.10). 26 26 This figure represents EPA authorised capacity and does not include capacity for soil & stone recovery at local authority authorised waste facilities. http://www.epa.ie/pubs/reports/other/corporate/2019-09-11_EPA_ AnnualReport_English_2018web.pdf 242