Company bosses urged to cut waste

Company bosses are being urged to dump recycling policies in favour of waste prevention plans, it emerged today.

Under a scheme run by the Irish Business and Employers’ Confederation (IBEC) managers are being trained to cut rubbish levels at the source rather than attempting to reuse tonnes of waste.

Donal Buckley, IBEC environment chief, said the programme was designed to give bosses the tools and skills needed to help reduce the country’s growing rubbish mountain.

“It’s not about dealing with the waste at the back end of the pipe, it’s about dealing with it at the source,” he said.

Mr Buckley said the prevention and minimisation of waste could reap major environmental and economic benefits.

“Rapidly rising waste disposal costs and problems finding appropriate disposal routes have provided organisations with a major economic incentive for reducing waste,” he said.

“Reducing waste makes economic and environmental sense. It’s not about recycling or reusing.”

Under European Union directives, national policy and legislation business leaders are being asked to adopt waste prevention measures rather than waste management.

And IBEC officials hope the new proramme will encourage companies to take the necessary steps to cut the amount of rubbish produced and dumped.

“Developing this capability will strengthen the economic and environmental performance of Irish business, by improving efficiency and potentially developing new products and services,” said Mr Buckley.

The training scheme, developed along with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Technology Centre, was designed to help firms solve waste problems.

Mr Buckley said managers from a number of professions ncluding the healthcare and hospitality sectors have shown great interest in joining the scheme.

“IBEC continuously and actively promotes good environmental practice amongst its member companies and believes this programme will further improve Irish industry which is amongst the most modern and efficient in Europe,” he said.