WASTE MANAGEMENT
Each speech listed here is an edited speech. If you'd like to see the speech or debate in full, please go to the Oireachtas website and click on "Seanad Eireann" and then "Seanad Debates" and click on the relevant date as listed with each speech on this page.
National Waste Strategy (27/02/08)
Waste Management (17/05/06)
Export of Irish Waste to China (28/04/05)
Waste Management (27/04/05)
Waste Management (02/03/05)
National Waste Strategy
27/02/08 - There is no traceability of waste. People throughout Ireland are separating their waste and using their green bins. On at least four occasions over the past five years, I have tried to trace a little piece of waste but I found it quite impossible to do so. … This system may have changed but the last time I checked, dirty plastic was sent to the Continent to be washed. …. The European waste directive has ruled that waste should be disposed of as close as possible to where it is created. If we are sending hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste out of the country every year we are patently not in compliance with the directive.
I ask the Minister to do one thing immediately. Any county or local authority which is not collecting waste on the basis of volume or weight should be fined. There are still counties which encourage people to dump all the waste they wish so long as they pay a set charge a year. The idea of an annual charge for waste collection is completely and utterly wrong. Waste collection should be made on the basis of the volume of waste or else by the number of bin lifts or some such quantifiable or measurable method.
Dongyang is a city in China and it is the place where most European waste is dealt with. It is a place which is polluted and where people are choked and are literally suffering the hardships of coping with our waste. They are breathing it and living it. There is no regard for environmental regulations or health and safety regulations.
I understand another European regulation requires those exporting waste to be able to guarantee governments that their waste is being disposed of in a proper manner. … We are all turning a blind eye and are filling ships with our rubbish which goes to China and chokes the people there.
I ask the Minister to deal with the China question and the matter of waste-derived fuel. I have met two groups who guarantee me that they can derive fuel from waste, and I have also seen this subject covered on a television programme. Let us do this. The Minister could give a grant to a county or a local authority for the purpose. My understanding is that there are two local authorities in the UK, one of them in London, now working on a £30 million project of this kind. It is no longer simply a project because they are now dealing with their waste in this way. There is no impact on the local environment, huge amounts of waste are being dealt with and the system is as efficient as an incinerator. It also gives fuel.
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Waste Management
17/05/06 - Waste management is an issue of social as well as Government responsibility and it will only work when both citizens and Government are pulling in the same direction. We do not know enough about the question of waste management. I know a bit about recycling and renewable energy, but not so much about waste. Payment by weight or volume makes much sense and it should be in every single local authority. The polluter pays principle also needs to be applied rigorously.
However, Friends of the Earth is right to state that we are not doing enough recycling. Every single local authority should be required to have a green or a brown bin. In the argument about one-off housing, conditions could be imposed on planning permission to include composting and so on. If every house had a composter and a choice of bins, many strides would be made. In his speech, the Minister stated that 80% of the waste in landfill is biodegradable. There is no reason we cannot deal with that.
I have done my best to read about incinerators. I have listened to all the arguments and I have tried to approach the issue with an open mind, but I do not know where I stand. …..incineration that regenerates electricity, which although a very important issue, is not the general argument about incineration. …..for an incinerator to be effective, there is a certain critical mass of waste which it must use. Therefore, where incinerators have been established, there is an encouragement to bring more waste to it. If that is the case — it has been put forward by Friends of the Earth and others — we should look at it very carefully.
It seems that modern incinerators, provided they are kept to the terms of planning and to the temperature levels required, are safer than any other form of waste disposal. If they are not maintained according to the most stringent regulations, then they can release gas, ash and other waste into the atmosphere that will create dioxins. If that happens, we cannot support them at all.
I would like to know about the efficiencies that arise from methane production in landfill sites. Is it being extensively carried out or is it being done as a sop? I agree with the point made by Friends of the Earth that selling the idea of incineration on the basis that it produces electricity is not an argument that stands up to close scrutiny. It can be done, but it is highly inefficient. However, if it sorts out the waste problem, it might be worth examining.
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Export of Irish Waste to China
28/04/05 - Yesterday I sought a debate on the export of Irish waste to China. Last night I researched the impact of this policy on the province of Dong Yang in China and it is quite horrific. I was not aware when I raised this yesterday that a series of major demonstrations undertaken by ordinary people in the province was suppressed by the Chinese news agency. News of these demonstrations has only been leaked in recent days. Dark toxic clouds have been reported in the area, which are damaging the health of young children and leading to significant numbers of still births and babies born with deformities while various other difficulties are being experienced. During the most recent protest people were killed in an attempt to stop them demonstrating. This is the result of waste exported from Ireland and the UK being dumped on these people. The waste is sifted through for reusable goods and then it is burned in uncontrolled circumstances to the detriment of the health of the people in the area. This is unacceptable. What we are doing is barbaric and I would like a discussion on this issue.
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Waste Management
27/04/05 - I also wish to raise the matter of waste. This issue has been in the news a great deal recently. A large section was devoted to it in The Irish Times yesterday, and there was a discussion this morning on “Morning Ireland” regarding the decision of the European Court of Justice.
One aspect of this matter has not been referred to in any publication I have seen in the past week despite all the discussion on it. I do not know if people realise that hundreds and thousands of tonnes of waste are being exported from Ireland and England every week more than half way around the world to China where it is burnt and disposed of to the detriment of the people living in those areas. While we have nice European Union regulations about the disposal of waste and while the Green lobby and others are happy for us not to deal with incineration, landfills or such like, we are washing our hands in a Pontius Pilate fashion, sending our waste to underdeveloped parts of China where ordinary people are choking and suffering from the pollution that goes with getting rid of our waste over there. This is utterly unacceptable.
We require a serious debate on where we stand on incineration and landfill. I accept that we dealt with this matter before. If members of local authorities have neither the possibility nor the political capability of taking decisions on where to put sites, etc., then we should devolve that power to local referenda where people can make a decision on where to locate them from a choice of four or five sites. We had better deal with this matter.
It is utterly unacceptable that we are exporting our filth to clean parts of the world. This is happening at a time when people are writing letters to newspapers all over Europe about the waste of energy in importing kiwi fruit from New Zealand to Europe. Let us compare that with the amount of energy we are wasting sending our dirt to China to pollute and damage the health of ordinary people there. We should cry “Stop” on this one.
Back to top of the page
Waste Management
02/03/05 - The biggest problem in dealing with waste is that people do not want to take responsibility for it. The biggest argument is always about in whose backyard the waste will be disposed. An honest debate on incinerators is needed. I agree with Senator Brady’s comments. While I am no expert in the area, all I have read leads me to believe we must acknowledge the part incinerators have in waste management. Unless it is proved otherwise, incineration is cleaner than other methods of disposal. We were all raised with the backyard burning approach to getting rid of waste, which still happens. However, the most basic scientific studies show that this throws more dioxins into the atmosphere than an incinerator. I have argued this point with my Green colleagues.
Exporting thousands of tonnes of waste every year to China cannot continue. If people get excited and energised by the costs and waste of energy involved in importing kiwi fruits from New Zealand, they should be equally energised about Ireland sending its dirt to China to be dealt with there. That is not good practice for the future. Landfill is finished and we cannot continue to employ this method.
I agree with Senator Bannon that recycling is simply not happening. Every week in my house, the car is loaded up with materials to go from north County Dublin into a city bring centre, as there are not enough in my area. After Christmas, all the bottle banks were spilling their contents on to the road, as they were not emptied. This problem must be examined.
Waste management needs to be examined on an individual basis. Too much of the debate has taken place on a national and local level. I want the debate to take place on a household level. Every house needs a green bin but this is not happening. For example, there are no green bins in the Fingal County Council area, a council which I consider progressive. Every house must have a composter in the back garden, with large houses required to have heat driven turbo composters. Any user of a composter knows how impossible it is to fill them. I congratulate Fingal County Council on being the first to introduce the pay-by-volume bin collection system. One only pays when one puts one’s bin out, a huge incentive for people to delay putting their bins out.
There is also a national public and governmental responsibility to keep our country clean. Some waste collections must be done. Will the Minister recognise that some people, such as the elderly, cannot afford to pay for waste collection, even on a volume basis? To resolve this, a national waiver scheme must be introduced to bring uniformity to the matter. I am sick and tired of hearing debates on the difference in collection charges between Fingal, South County Dublin, Kildare and Kerry County Councils. An element of conformity must be introduced.
We can learn much from young people on recycling. Every house should be required to have a green bin and a composter. The introduction of turbo composters should be examined. A real and unbiased debate, without spin, is needed on incinerators. I know of no country that has implemented an acceptable national waste disposal programme without including incineration. Can communities be incentivised through tax breaks to take responsibility for their waste? As long as a community looks after the waste from its nearest town, it will be understandably resentful. The bottle banks must be in clean, easily accessible locations with safe parking and must be emptied regularly. I have studied some newer models in other countries and much progress has been made in new approaches. Is it necessary for the bottles to be colour sorted between green, brown and clear? Colour sorting only slows the process. We should be proud that we were the first country in Europe to get rid of the plastic bag. It was an extraordinary move. People complied with the regulation, showing themselves to be flexible. That other countries have followed suit is a good sign.
Will the Minister take on board the idea of a community in a set geographical area, such as a peninsula, taking responsibility for its own waste disposal and energy requirements? The new 1.6 MW generators in west Kerry could look after all that area’s electricity needs and, by my calculations, could even sell some. It would also be possible to have some type of waste disposal scheme. One could offer the residents of a community tax breaks if it looked after its energy requirements and its waste. That is worth thinking about. It is creative and is worth doing to see how it works.
Back to top of the page
Seanad debates are available in full on the Oireachtas Website
Each speech listed here is an edited speech. If you'd like to see the speech or debate in full, please go to the Oireachtas website and click on "Seanad Eireann" and then "Seanad Debates" and click on the relevant date as listed with each speech on this page.
National Waste Strategy (27/02/08)
Waste Management (17/05/06)
Export of Irish Waste to China (28/04/05)
Waste Management (27/04/05)
Waste Management (02/03/05)
National Waste Strategy
27/02/08 - There is no traceability of waste. People throughout Ireland are separating their waste and using their green bins. On at least four occasions over the past five years, I have tried to trace a little piece of waste but I found it quite impossible to do so. … This system may have changed but the last time I checked, dirty plastic was sent to the Continent to be washed. …. The European waste directive has ruled that waste should be disposed of as close as possible to where it is created. If we are sending hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste out of the country every year we are patently not in compliance with the directive.
I ask the Minister to do one thing immediately. Any county or local authority which is not collecting waste on the basis of volume or weight should be fined. There are still counties which encourage people to dump all the waste they wish so long as they pay a set charge a year. The idea of an annual charge for waste collection is completely and utterly wrong. Waste collection should be made on the basis of the volume of waste or else by the number of bin lifts or some such quantifiable or measurable method.
Dongyang is a city in China and it is the place where most European waste is dealt with. It is a place which is polluted and where people are choked and are literally suffering the hardships of coping with our waste. They are breathing it and living it. There is no regard for environmental regulations or health and safety regulations.
I understand another European regulation requires those exporting waste to be able to guarantee governments that their waste is being disposed of in a proper manner. … We are all turning a blind eye and are filling ships with our rubbish which goes to China and chokes the people there.
I ask the Minister to deal with the China question and the matter of waste-derived fuel. I have met two groups who guarantee me that they can derive fuel from waste, and I have also seen this subject covered on a television programme. Let us do this. The Minister could give a grant to a county or a local authority for the purpose. My understanding is that there are two local authorities in the UK, one of them in London, now working on a £30 million project of this kind. It is no longer simply a project because they are now dealing with their waste in this way. There is no impact on the local environment, huge amounts of waste are being dealt with and the system is as efficient as an incinerator. It also gives fuel.
Back to top of the page
Waste Management
17/05/06 - Waste management is an issue of social as well as Government responsibility and it will only work when both citizens and Government are pulling in the same direction. We do not know enough about the question of waste management. I know a bit about recycling and renewable energy, but not so much about waste. Payment by weight or volume makes much sense and it should be in every single local authority. The polluter pays principle also needs to be applied rigorously.
However, Friends of the Earth is right to state that we are not doing enough recycling. Every single local authority should be required to have a green or a brown bin. In the argument about one-off housing, conditions could be imposed on planning permission to include composting and so on. If every house had a composter and a choice of bins, many strides would be made. In his speech, the Minister stated that 80% of the waste in landfill is biodegradable. There is no reason we cannot deal with that.
I have done my best to read about incinerators. I have listened to all the arguments and I have tried to approach the issue with an open mind, but I do not know where I stand. …..incineration that regenerates electricity, which although a very important issue, is not the general argument about incineration. …..for an incinerator to be effective, there is a certain critical mass of waste which it must use. Therefore, where incinerators have been established, there is an encouragement to bring more waste to it. If that is the case — it has been put forward by Friends of the Earth and others — we should look at it very carefully.
It seems that modern incinerators, provided they are kept to the terms of planning and to the temperature levels required, are safer than any other form of waste disposal. If they are not maintained according to the most stringent regulations, then they can release gas, ash and other waste into the atmosphere that will create dioxins. If that happens, we cannot support them at all.
I would like to know about the efficiencies that arise from methane production in landfill sites. Is it being extensively carried out or is it being done as a sop? I agree with the point made by Friends of the Earth that selling the idea of incineration on the basis that it produces electricity is not an argument that stands up to close scrutiny. It can be done, but it is highly inefficient. However, if it sorts out the waste problem, it might be worth examining.
Back to top of the page
Export of Irish Waste to China
28/04/05 - Yesterday I sought a debate on the export of Irish waste to China. Last night I researched the impact of this policy on the province of Dong Yang in China and it is quite horrific. I was not aware when I raised this yesterday that a series of major demonstrations undertaken by ordinary people in the province was suppressed by the Chinese news agency. News of these demonstrations has only been leaked in recent days. Dark toxic clouds have been reported in the area, which are damaging the health of young children and leading to significant numbers of still births and babies born with deformities while various other difficulties are being experienced. During the most recent protest people were killed in an attempt to stop them demonstrating. This is the result of waste exported from Ireland and the UK being dumped on these people. The waste is sifted through for reusable goods and then it is burned in uncontrolled circumstances to the detriment of the health of the people in the area. This is unacceptable. What we are doing is barbaric and I would like a discussion on this issue.
Back to top of the page
Waste Management
27/04/05 - I also wish to raise the matter of waste. This issue has been in the news a great deal recently. A large section was devoted to it in The Irish Times yesterday, and there was a discussion this morning on “Morning Ireland” regarding the decision of the European Court of Justice.
One aspect of this matter has not been referred to in any publication I have seen in the past week despite all the discussion on it. I do not know if people realise that hundreds and thousands of tonnes of waste are being exported from Ireland and England every week more than half way around the world to China where it is burnt and disposed of to the detriment of the people living in those areas. While we have nice European Union regulations about the disposal of waste and while the Green lobby and others are happy for us not to deal with incineration, landfills or such like, we are washing our hands in a Pontius Pilate fashion, sending our waste to underdeveloped parts of China where ordinary people are choking and suffering from the pollution that goes with getting rid of our waste over there. This is utterly unacceptable.
We require a serious debate on where we stand on incineration and landfill. I accept that we dealt with this matter before. If members of local authorities have neither the possibility nor the political capability of taking decisions on where to put sites, etc., then we should devolve that power to local referenda where people can make a decision on where to locate them from a choice of four or five sites. We had better deal with this matter.
It is utterly unacceptable that we are exporting our filth to clean parts of the world. This is happening at a time when people are writing letters to newspapers all over Europe about the waste of energy in importing kiwi fruit from New Zealand to Europe. Let us compare that with the amount of energy we are wasting sending our dirt to China to pollute and damage the health of ordinary people there. We should cry “Stop” on this one.
Back to top of the page
Waste Management
02/03/05 - The biggest problem in dealing with waste is that people do not want to take responsibility for it. The biggest argument is always about in whose backyard the waste will be disposed. An honest debate on incinerators is needed. I agree with Senator Brady’s comments. While I am no expert in the area, all I have read leads me to believe we must acknowledge the part incinerators have in waste management. Unless it is proved otherwise, incineration is cleaner than other methods of disposal. We were all raised with the backyard burning approach to getting rid of waste, which still happens. However, the most basic scientific studies show that this throws more dioxins into the atmosphere than an incinerator. I have argued this point with my Green colleagues.
Exporting thousands of tonnes of waste every year to China cannot continue. If people get excited and energised by the costs and waste of energy involved in importing kiwi fruits from New Zealand, they should be equally energised about Ireland sending its dirt to China to be dealt with there. That is not good practice for the future. Landfill is finished and we cannot continue to employ this method.
I agree with Senator Bannon that recycling is simply not happening. Every week in my house, the car is loaded up with materials to go from north County Dublin into a city bring centre, as there are not enough in my area. After Christmas, all the bottle banks were spilling their contents on to the road, as they were not emptied. This problem must be examined.
Waste management needs to be examined on an individual basis. Too much of the debate has taken place on a national and local level. I want the debate to take place on a household level. Every house needs a green bin but this is not happening. For example, there are no green bins in the Fingal County Council area, a council which I consider progressive. Every house must have a composter in the back garden, with large houses required to have heat driven turbo composters. Any user of a composter knows how impossible it is to fill them. I congratulate Fingal County Council on being the first to introduce the pay-by-volume bin collection system. One only pays when one puts one’s bin out, a huge incentive for people to delay putting their bins out.
There is also a national public and governmental responsibility to keep our country clean. Some waste collections must be done. Will the Minister recognise that some people, such as the elderly, cannot afford to pay for waste collection, even on a volume basis? To resolve this, a national waiver scheme must be introduced to bring uniformity to the matter. I am sick and tired of hearing debates on the difference in collection charges between Fingal, South County Dublin, Kildare and Kerry County Councils. An element of conformity must be introduced.
We can learn much from young people on recycling. Every house should be required to have a green bin and a composter. The introduction of turbo composters should be examined. A real and unbiased debate, without spin, is needed on incinerators. I know of no country that has implemented an acceptable national waste disposal programme without including incineration. Can communities be incentivised through tax breaks to take responsibility for their waste? As long as a community looks after the waste from its nearest town, it will be understandably resentful. The bottle banks must be in clean, easily accessible locations with safe parking and must be emptied regularly. I have studied some newer models in other countries and much progress has been made in new approaches. Is it necessary for the bottles to be colour sorted between green, brown and clear? Colour sorting only slows the process. We should be proud that we were the first country in Europe to get rid of the plastic bag. It was an extraordinary move. People complied with the regulation, showing themselves to be flexible. That other countries have followed suit is a good sign.
Will the Minister take on board the idea of a community in a set geographical area, such as a peninsula, taking responsibility for its own waste disposal and energy requirements? The new 1.6 MW generators in west Kerry could look after all that area’s electricity needs and, by my calculations, could even sell some. It would also be possible to have some type of waste disposal scheme. One could offer the residents of a community tax breaks if it looked after its energy requirements and its waste. That is worth thinking about. It is creative and is worth doing to see how it works.
Back to top of the page
Seanad debates are available in full on the Oireachtas Website