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

Chapter 9: Waste Enforcement Initiatives Dumping and littering remain significant issues that are being tackled through government initiatives. The Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment introduced an anti-dumping initiative in 2017, which is coordinated by the WERLAs. Initiatives have included the use of drones to identify illegal dumping spots; a pilot initiative in Sligo to create and maintain a register of how households are managing their waste using Eircode information; and mattress/bulky waste amnesties (WERLA, 2020). In 2019, €2.9 million in funding was provided for 302 projects that managed to clean up 1638 tonnes of waste. In April 2020, the government announced that €1 million of the anti- dumping initiative’s funds would be ring-fenced to allow local authorities to respond quickly and decisively to incidents of illegal dumping during the COVID-19 crisis (EPA, 2020c). Topic Box 9.7 EPA Waste Research Programme Research into waste-related topics provides valuable solutions and information. Since 2016, the EPA has funded up to 53 new research projects relevant to the Waste area, representing a commitment of €7.2 million. These projects were funded mostly under the Sustainability (Resource Efficiency) Pillar of the EPA Research Programme 2014-2020 and the EPA Green Enterprise Scheme. Areas of waste research include: n commercial food waste arisings n supporting preparation for reuse of WEEE n measuring persistent organic pollutants in waste n sustainable compostable and recyclable plastics n packaging waste statistics n end-of-waste standards for good-quality compost and digestate n potential use of wastes as geopolymer construction materials n managing waste amalgam dental fillings. Reports are available from: http://www.epa.ie/pubs/reports/research/waste/ 249