Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

415 Chapter 15: Circular Economy and Waste Treatment capacity. In terms of waste infrastructure, Ireland has three active landfills that are authorised to accept municipal and other waste types (down from six in 2016 and 125 in 1996). There are also three waste- to-energy installations (two active incinerators and one inactive pyrolysis plant) and four cement kilns (accepting waste for co-incineration as an alternative to using fossil fuels). There is still no commercial hazardous waste landfill or hazardous waste incinerator in Ireland. This lack of infrastructure is a risk to the State, as Ireland 17 mywaste.ie/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/National-Waste-Management-Plan-for-a-Circular-Economy-Volume-I-Current-Situation- and-Challenges.pdf (accessed 1 July 2024). remains reliant on facilities in European countries accepting exports of residual non-hazardous and hazardous wastes. The EPA and the local authorities, through the regional waste management planning offices, regularly monitor waste treatment capacities nationally. Table 15.1 sets out the status of key elements of Ireland’s waste infrastructure and capacity. Table 15.1  Waste infrastructure and capacity, 2023 Infrastructure Name and licence number Authorised and Active Capacity (tpa) a Comments Landfills accepting municipal and other waste for disposal and recovery Drehid Waste Management Facility (W0201-03) Knockharley Landfill Ltd (W0146-04) Ballynagran Landfill Ltd (W0165-02) 735,000 Waste types accepted and available capacities as per individual licence Municipal waste-to- energy facilities Meath Waste-to-Energy (W0167-03) Dublin Waste to Energy Ltd (W0232-02) Glanpower Ltd (W0282-01) 975,000 Glanpower Ltd is not active (May 2024) Co-incineration of waste at cement kilns Irish Cement Ltd, Platin (P0030-06) Irish Cement Ltd, Castlemungret (P0029-06) Breedon Cement Ireland Ltd (P0487-07) Mannok Cement Ltd (P0378-03) 787,875 Waste types accepted and available capacities as per individual licence Composting and anaerobic digestion 18 facilities 968,100 Does not include industrial/agricultural facilities that treat their own waste Soil and stone recovery capacity 20 facilities 5,700,000 Includes capacity of 2 inert landfills which accept soil and stone wastes Civic amenity sites b 96 local authority civic amenity sites (in addition, there are approximately 20 private civic amenity sites) – – Bring banks Over 1800 bring banks – – Pay-to-use compactors Over 30 compactors – – a  Limitations to different waste types and quantities are defined within each licence b  Source: National Waste Management Plan for a Circular Economy, Volume 1 17