Waste figures released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) show that Ireland’s municipal solid waste generation has decreased by 17% since it peaked in 2007, largely as the result of the recession and a decline in personal consumption. Ireland now produces less household waste per capita than the EU average and is recycling 40% of its municipal waste. Ireland is also achieving all its EU waste recovery targets with the exception of End of Life Vehicle recovery.

The main findings of the report showed that in 2011:

* Municipal solid waste generation inIrelandhas decreased by 17% since it peaked in 2007.

* There was a 5% increase in municipal waste recovery since 2010, to 47%.

* The recycling rate for municipal waste is now equivalent to the EU norms, at (40%).

* The bulk of municipal waste recovered, 73%, is exported for recovery.

* The majority of municipal waste, 53%, is disposed of to landfill – though this continues to decrease year on year.

* The tonnage of refuse derived fuel (RDF) used as a fuel at cement kilns and incinerators in Ireland and abroad increased by 68%.

*Ireland has surpassed the 2011 EU packaging recovery target of 60%, with a 79% recovery rate in 2011.

* Household WEEE collection amounted to 7.6 kg per person, almost double the 4 kg per person EU target.

* There was an 83% decrease in construction and demolition waste collected since 2007.

* There was a 21% increase in household organic waste collected since 2010.

Dr Jonathan Derham of EPA comments: “Ireland is well advanced towards achievement of all of its EU obligations across a broad range of waste legislation, in particular in relation to recovery and recycling. In fact, a recent European Environment Agency report showed thatIrelandwas one of the countries inEuropewith the fastest growing recycling rates. However, Ireland continues to show a substantial reliance on recovery of municipal waste abroad.”

Indeed, some future targets remain at risk of not being met. Ireland’s continued reliance on landfill means that we are at risk of not reaching strict biodegradable waste diversion targets by 2016. Furthermore, with higher End of Life Vehicle (ELV) targets coming into effect from January 2015, urgent action is needed to increase reuse, recovery and recycling of ELV materials.

Dr Derham continues: “We have to decouple waste generation from economic growth through ensuring that waste prevention and resource efficiency remains at the core of targeted national policy and measures, so that when economic recovery happens there is not an associated increase in waste to be managed. Householders, communities and businesses all need to play their part by engaging more in resource efficient behaviours. The EPA has a range of support services for businesses and consumers to help them improve competitiveness and save money through waste prevention and resource efficiency.”

A new report, published by the Welsh Government, shows that between April 2011 and March 2012 Wales’s local authorities reused or recycled almost 800,000 tonnes, while the amount of waste sent to landfill fell to around 700,000 tonnes. This means that for the first time Wales recycled more than it sent to landfill.

“Wales is the only country in the UK which recycles more than it sends to landfill,” says Minister for Natural Resources, Alun Davies. “Recycling not only benefits the environment but also supports the economy through the creation of jobs in the waste and resource management industry. This is why the collection of high quality recyclate is central to our plans as it can be reprocessed here in Wales – retaining our resources, creating local employment and stimulating Welsh markets.”

The report is the first to examine a 12 month period and provides a more detailed account of the end destination of recycled material than the previous report. The Welsh Government will continue to work with partner organisations to make future reports more informative for local authorities and householders.

The Minister adds: “I hope the report, which shows that our waste is being used as a valuable resource that can be recycled or re-manufactured here in Wales, encourages people to continue recycling and even start recycling more materials more often.”

The burgeoning anaerobic digestion (AD) industry in the UK has reached a ‘significant’ milestone, as the number of AD plants outside of the water industry has passed 100 for the very first time. The official figures, gathered by bioeconomy consultants NNFCC and WRAP, reveal that the number of AD plants in the UK has nearly doubled since September 2011, when a comprehensive baseline report was published.

There are now 106 anaerobic digestion plants outside of the water industry, processing up to 5.1 million tonnes of food and farm waste every year and with an installed electrical capacity of more than 88MWe. There are also more than a dozen other plants currently under construction.

“This is a significant milestone for the anaerobic digestion industry in the UK and highlights the broad range of companies turning to AD for waste management and to generate renewable heat and electricity,” says Lucy Hopwood, Head of Biomass and Biogas at NNFCC. “Recent actions and innovations in technology development, training and process optimisation have led to greater opportunities and a more robust industry. For investors anaerobic digestion is an easy win with good returns, support from a number of Government incentives and low investment risk.”

Nearly half of the AD plants currently in operation are ‘community’ digesters, where food waste is collected from multiple sources, like supermarkets, hospitality providers and households, to be converted into heat, power and fertiliser.

A further thirty per cent use ‘agricultural’ feedstocks, like slurry, manure, crops or residues. The remaining digesters are ‘industrial’ sites treating on-site waste such as brewery effluent and food processing residues.

Plastic has become an unavoidable material in our modern world. Plastics are versatile and durable, but this durability can make disposal problematic. A Green Paper published by the European Commission aims to launch a structured discussion about how to make plastic products more sustainable throughout their life cycle and reduce the impact of plastic waste on the environment.

Once in the environment, particularly in the marine environment, plastic waste can persist for hundreds of years. Up to 10 million tons of litter, mostly plastic, end up in the world’s oceans and seas annually, turning them into the world’s biggest plastic dump.

Plastic is often perceived as a cheap and disposable material in our “throw-away” society, and recycling rates are low. Half of all plastic waste generated inEuropegoes to landfill, which should be avoided as plastic can contain hazardous components and disposal can result in undesirable emissions and concentrated, polluting residues.

The Green Paper underlines the key role that plastic plays in many industrial processes and applications, and the potential economic gains of higher recycling rates. As the world population grows and natural resources become scarcer, recycling plastics will be an alternative to the exploitation of virgin resources. To speed this change, better framework conditions are needed to support eco-design and environmental innovation, with waste prevention and recycling factored in to the design of plastic products.

The particular challenges posed by plastic waste are not specifically addressed in EU waste legislation at present. Member States should favour prevention and recycling over other modes of disposal, as is the case for all waste streams referred to in the Waste Framework Directive, but clearly more is needed. The Green Paper aims to gather facts and views in order to assess the impacts of plastic waste and define a European strategy to mitigate them.

Stakeholders are invited to contribute their views on whether, and how, existing legislation should be adapted to deal with plastic waste and promote re-use, recycling and recovery of plastic waste over landfilling. Views are also sought on the effectiveness of potential recycling targets, and of economic measures such as landfill bans, landfill taxes and pay-as-you-throw schemes. The Green Paper also asks how to improve the modular and chemical design of plastic to improve recyclability, how to reduce marine litter and whether there is a need to promote biodegradable plastics.

The consultation, which includes 26 questions, will last until the beginning of June 2013. The result will feed into further policy action in 2014 as part of a broader waste policy review, which will look in particular at the existing targets for waste recovery and landfill as well as an ex-post evaluation of five directives covering various waste streams.

Plans for new waste management infrastructure which will enable arc21, the umbrella waste body for 11 Councils in the East of Northern Ireland, to meet European landfill diversion targets and manage its waste more sustainably have been unveiled. The announcement has triggered a programme of extensive public consultation designed to explain the proposals in detail, answer questions and provide the public and other stakeholders with an opportunity to provide their feedback ahead of submission of a formal planning application in the autumn. The Project is subject to the successful conclusion of both public procurement and planning processes.

Representing a capital investment of £240 million, the plans, if approved, will see the Becon Consortium deliver a Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) facility alongside an Energy from Waste (EfW) plant located in the existing Hightown Quarry on the Boghill Road, near Mallusk. This type of waste infrastructure is commonly used across the rest of Europe and will form an integral part of Northern Ireland’s agreed waste management strategy. The project will complement existing arc21 waste, reduction, reuse and recycling programmes to maximise recycling levels and create a sustainable energy source from the remaining residual black bin waste.

The Becon Consortium, aims to develop the facilities on behalf of arc21 pending the completion of a competitive procurement process. The Consortium is backed by E.ON Energy from Waste, a leading European company with decades of experience in developing and operating similar EfW plants. It currently operates 19 plants in Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

The proposed facilities will help arc21’s 11 Councils to not only meet their EU landfill reduction targets, therefore avoiding potential fines, but will also help increase overall recycling levels within the arc21 area by up to 10%. The project will also export 14MW electricity to the National Grid, enough to power more than 30,000 homes, contributing to Northern Ireland’s renewable energy targets, while significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions compared to using landfill.

An independent economic assessment by Oxford Economics estimates the project will create or sustain approximately 340 permanent direct and indirect jobs when operational – contributing over £24 million Gross Value Added (GVA) to the Northern Ireland economy per annum. It will also create up to 455 direct construction jobs and support a significant number of additional jobs in the construction supply chain, generating an estimated £215 million GVA in the process.  The project will also include a Visitor Centre which will showcase best practice in waste management and sustainability.

Following a careful site selection process, the long established Hightown Quarry was considered the best location for the new facilities as it is centrally located in the arc21 area, and has good connections to the primary road network as well as the national electricity grid. Importantly, this active industrial quarry site is of sufficient size and scale to absorb the scheme and lends itself well to visual screening and noise shielding.

CAPTION:

Pictured at the Hightown Quarry are Ricky Burnett, Policy and Operations Director, arc21, and Ian Smith, Project Director, Becon Consortium.

The European Recycling Platform (ERP), Ireland’s only pan-European compliance scheme for electrical and electronic waste and waste battery recycling, has welcomed the transposition of the RoHS Directive into Irish law. The RoHS Directive (Directive 2011/65/EU) came into legal effect in Ireland last month and relates to the “restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS).

In effect, the new Directive now sets a more comprehensive set of obligations on manufacturers, importers and/or distributors of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), which they will have to comply with when it comes to hazardous substances in EEE.

While the scope of the directive has been enlarged to now apply to all EEE, there are some exceptional categories that fall out of the scope of the Directive.  These include: security equipment, equipment designed to be sent to space, large-scale stationary industrial tools, active implantable medical devices and photovoltaic panels.

Maximum concentration values have now been set in the manufacture of EEE across six hazardous substances including Lead (0.1%), Mercury (0.1%), Cadmium (0.01%) and Hexavalent Chromium (0.1%).

According to Martin Tobin, Chief Executive Officer at ERP: “We are delighted to see the transposition of this Directive on the restrictive use of hazardous materials in electrical goods.  We now have a more effective, simpler and enforceable Directive that brings about harmonisation of RoHS across the other Member States of the European Union.”

In addition, he added: “Compliance with the new obligations will go some way in the prevention of risks to human health and the environment.  In particular, it will make for a much safer environment for workers involved in the management of electronic waste.”

Tobin however called on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Irish authority responsible for enforcement of the Directive, to adopt a pragmatic approach with producers during the initial implementation phase.  “The initial focus over the first six months should be on raising awareness, building momentum and ensuring producers, importers and distributors are working towards compliance, rather than on penalizing those who cannot immediately meet the onerous obligations.”

Retailers concerned about products that may or may not meet their legal obligations under the RoHS Directive, should look out for the CE Mark, from January 2013.  Products with the CE Mark affixed demonstrate that they have met their compliance obligations and that the manufacturer has met all of the internal production control rules and conformity assessment procedures.

The RoHS Directive places specific conformity obligations on manufacturers, importers and distributors handling EEE.

For example, in relation to document management, importers of EEE product must keep, for 10 years following the placing on the market of the EEE, a copy of the EU declaration of conformity and the technical documentation.

Having actively participated throughout the review process, ERP will now play a central role at local level in Ireland to support all stakeholders with the implementation of this Directive.

For further information on the RoHS Directive go to:

http://www.erpcollect.ie/rohs/rohsdirective.html

Revised regulations on decorative paints and solvents were published on January 1st 2013. Re-sprayers and dry cleaners are required by law to register with their local authority, and have their premises inspected to ensure that they use appropriate products, dispose of waste in an appropriate manner and take measures to protect the environment.

Commenting on the new Regulations Dr Ian Marnane of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement says: “The re-spraying of cars and dry cleaning activities are regulated to minimise harmful effects on our environment and health. Car paint and dry cleaning raw materials contain Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) which can evaporate into our atmosphere, even at room temperature. This can cause respiratory illness and have potentially harmful effects on our environment.”

The new law will address some of the concerns of the regulated community and will also provide greater powers to local authorities to enforce the regulations. All existing operators are urged to ensure that they renew their certificates in advance of their expiry date.

Dr Ian Marnane continues: “It is important that people support certified vehicle refinishers and dry cleaners in their area. These businesses have made the appropriate investment to ensure that harmful solvents are controlled and prevented from causing environmental damage.”

The EPA is now responsible for the appointment of a panel of approved assessors who will carry out the assessment of compliance with the regulations at relevant installations.  This panel is required to be in place by September 30th 2013. In the interim, the EPA has appointed an assessor and operators are obliged to continue to hold up-to-date certification during the interim period.

Further updates on the development of the panel of inspection bodies will be publicised over the coming weeks through revisions to the existing EPA websites for these regulations at http://www.epa.ie/whatwedo/advice/air/decopaintsdirective/ and http://www.epa.ie/whatwedo/advice/air/solvents/.

A new report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers has found that as much as 50% of all food produced around the world never reaches a human stomach due to issues as varied as inadequate infrastructure and storage facilities through to overly strict sell-by dates, buy-one-get-one free offers and consumers demanding cosmetically perfect food.

With UN predictions that there could be about an extra three billion people to feed by the end of the century and an increasing pressure on the resources needed to produce food, including land, water and energy, the Institution is calling for urgent action to tackle this waste.

The report ‘Global Food Waste Not Want Not’ found that:

* between 30% and 50% or 1.2-2 billion tonnes of food produced around the world each year never reaches a human stomach;

* as much as 30% of UK vegetable crops are not harvested due to them failing to meet exacting standards based on their physical appearance, while up to half of the food that’s bought in Europe and the USA is thrown away by the consumer;

* about 550 billion cu m of water is wasted globally in growing crops that never reach the consumer;

* it takes 20-50 times the amount of water to produce 1 kilogram of meat than 1 kilogram of vegetables;

* the demand for water in food production could reach 10–13 trillion cu m a year by 2050. This is 2.5 to 3.5 times greater than the total human use of fresh water today and could lead to more dangerous water shortages around the world;

* there is the potential to provide 60-100% more food by eliminating losses and waste while at the same time freeing up land, energy and water resources.

Dr Tim Fox, Head of Energy and Environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers comments: “The amount of food wasted and lost around the world is staggering. This is food that could be used to feed the world’s growing population – as well as those in hunger today. It is also an unnecessary waste of the land, water and energy resources that were used in the production, processing and distribution of this food. The reasons for this situation range from poor engineering and agricultural practices, inadequate transport and storage infrastructure through to supermarkets demanding cosmetically perfect foodstuffs and encouraging consumers to overbuy through buy-one-get-one free offers.”

He continues: “As water, land and energy resources come under increasing pressure from competing human demands, engineers have a crucial role to play in preventing food loss and waste by developing more efficient ways of growing, transporting and storing foods. But in order for this to happen Governments, development agencies and organisation like the UN must work together to help change people’s mindsets on waste and discourage wasteful practices by farmers, food producers, supermarkets and consumers.”

By 2075 the UN predicts that the world’s population is set to reach around 9.5 billion, which could mean an extra three billion mouths to feed. A key issue to dealing with this population growth is how to produce more food in a world with resources under competing pressures – particularly given the added stresses caused by global warming and the increasing popularity of eating meat – which requires around 10 times the land resources of food like rice or potatoes.

The world produces about four billion metric tonnes of food per year, but wastes up to half of this food through poor practices and inadequate infrastructure. By improving processes and infrastructure as well as changing consumer mindsets, we would have the ability to provide 60-100% more food to feed the world’s growing population.

The Global Food Waste Not Want Not report recommends that:

1. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) works with the international engineering community to ensure governments of developed nations put in place programmes that transfer engineering knowledge, design know-how, and suitable technology to newly developing countries. This will help improve produce handling in the harvest, and immediate post-harvest stages of food production.

2. Governments of rapidly developing countries incorporate waste minimisation thinking into the transport infrastructure and storage facilities currently being planned, engineered and built.

3. Governments in developed nations devise and implement policy that changes consumer expectations. These should discourage retailers from wasteful practices that lead to the rejection of food on the basis of cosmetic characteristics, and losses in the home due to excessive purchasing by consumers.

Sino-EU Union International (Irl) trading as CI Electric Bikes, Unit E7, Centre Business Park, Oak Drive, Oak Road, Dublin 12, has pleaded guilty to charges brought by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in relation to ten offences under the Waste Management (Batteries and Accumulator) Regulations 2008 and three offences under the European Communities (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) (WEEE) Regulations 2011. At Dublin Metropolitan District Court, the company admitted breaching the Regulations by:

* Placing batteries and electrical and electronic equipment on the market at a time when the company was not registered as a producer of such equipment;

* Failing to apply to the producer registration body for registration or renewal of registration;

* Failing to declare the quantities, by weight or number of units, of batteries and electrical and electronic equipment placed on the market.

Fines totalling €1,300 and EPA costs totalling €2,000 were subsequently imposed on the company, which is now fully compliant.

Caitriona Collins of EPA comments: “This is the second prosecution taken by the EPA for breaches of the Batteries Regulations and follows extensive enforcement work carried on by the EPA since the regulations came into effect in September 2008. Both the WEEE and Battery Regulations are based on the principle of producer responsibility and it is therefore essential that those companies placing equipment and batteries on the Irish market are paying their fair share of the costs for ensuring those products are safely and properly recycled when they are discarded so that they do not harm the environment or human health.”

The Limerick/Clare/Kerry Regional Waste Management Office this week attended an international convention in Greece to discuss how local and regional authorities can improve their waste collection and recycling policies.

Regional Waste Co-ordinator Philippa King travelled to Athens for the meeting of ‘Regions 4 Recycling’ (R4R) project partners, the first overseas meeting to be attended by the Office since it joined the European wide waste recycling project in April 2012.

Under the Interreg IVC European project, local authorities in Clare, Limerick and Kerry have joined participating authorities in 12 other European regions in making performance comparisons via a common methodology and exchange of good practices in order to improve their respective recycling performances.

According to Ms. King: “European municipalities are subject to common EU waste management regulations but have taken different approaches to reach the recycling targets. Differences between the recycling performances are evident, ranging from less than 10% to more than 70% from one region to another. Some of the differences can be accounted for by different data compilation practices between regions.”

Ms. King explained that the meeting in Athens was aimed at sharing the expertise of the R4R project partners with Greek municipalities and regions. It also showcased the project’s first results relating to the local instruments required to reach high recycling performances.

She said the initial project results would help to guide local authorities in Limerick, Clare and Kerry about future waste management practices.

“The Landfill and incineration taxes, local authority waste collection services, differentiated pricing systems and awareness-raising campaigns are some of the instruments used by cities and regions to organise their waste collection and recycling schemes. The right mix leads to impressive selective collection and recycling rates, as in Flanders for instance, where 70% of waste is separately collected, with a high quality level of the collected waste (ensuring a high recycling rate as well),” Ms. King stated.

She continued: “Over the next two and half years, the Limerick/Clare/Kerry Region, through the R4R project, is aiming to optimize its waste management practices, through the continued exchange of good practices and to achieve higher recycling rates with the ability to benchmark Ireland with the partners across Europe.”

The 3-year R4R project aims to work on a common framework for waste data observation, selective collection and recycling rates where by assessing the local instruments (technical, economic or legal) with the aim to reduce the recycling performance gap between the EU regions. The project was officially launched at a conference on 18th April in Paris.

The 13 partners are:  Ile-de-France Region Waste Management Observatory (France), ACR+  the Association of Cities and Regions for Recycling and Sustainable Resource Management (Belgium), OVAM  the Public Waste Agency of Flanders (Belgium), Odense Waste Management (Denmark), Municipality of Lisbon (Portugal), EFXINI Poli (Greece), Limerick County Council (Ireland), Province of Styria (Austria), Municipality of Tallinn (Estonia), Waste Agency of Catalonia (Spain), Municipality of Sofia (Bulgaria), Municipality of Zagreb (Croatia), Ilfov County  Council (Romania).

For more visit www.regions4recycling.eu or www.managewaste.ie.

The Government has announced a grant scheme to provide financial assistance to households whose septic tanks and other domestic waste water treatment systems, require remediation or upgrading following inspection under the Water Services (Amendment) Act 2012.  

Inspections are expected to commence in 2013 and will be based on a national inspection plan currently being finalised by the Environmental Protection Agency.  All domestic septic tanks and other waste water systems should be registered not later than 1st February 2013 on www.ProtectOurWater.ie or by post or in local authority offices. Waste water systems that that have not been registered by 1st February will also be subject to inspection.

Phil Hogan TD, Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, comments: “While the majority of septic tanks may be working well, and in those cases the householders should have nothing to worry about, those tanks that are not working properly may be polluting groundwater and contaminating our drinking water supplies and must be remediated. No one better understands the risks associated with malfunctioning on-site waste water treatment systems than the people who live in close proximity to them and source their drinking water from their own wells or from their local group water scheme. The key objective of this legislation is to enhance and protect public health and the environment which will, in turn, benefit rural dwellers in terms of a better quality of life and better quality water.”

A strict condition of eligibility for grant aid will be that the householder has registered their system by the prescribed date of 1 February 2013. To date 290,000 people (58%) have registered their systems. Census 2011 indicates that there are about 497,000 septic tanks and similar systems in Ireland.

The grant assistance will only be available to householders whose systems have been inspected by their local authority and are found to be in need of remediation.

The Government is also increasing the grant for Group Sewerage Schemes to €6,500 per house or 75% of the cost of the scheme, whichever is the lesser. The current rate of grant available for group sewerage schemes is €2,031.58 per house or 75

The Director of Public Prosecutions has prosecuted Oxigen Environmental and Cavan County Council for breaching a condition of an EPA waste licence between 14 February 2007 and 14 February 2009 contrary to section 39 of the Waste Management Act. The prosecution was based on a file prepared by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Oxigen Environmental and Cavan County Council pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that odours did not give rise to a nuisance at Corranure Landfill, Cootehill Road, Cavan or in the immediate area of the landfill. There were 30 counts on the indictment and the company and the council pleaded guilty to sample counts. 

Cavan County Council  was fined €10,000 per week for the 26 weeks from 14 February 2007 to 30 September 2007 totalling €260,000. Oxigen Environmental was fined €10,000 per week for the 78 weeks from 1 October 2007 to 14 February 2009 totalling €780,000

The Environmental Protection Agency’s costs of €40,000 were also awarded. This prosecution was taken on foot of an investigation carried out by EPA inspectors and complaints from local residents.