Waste disposal shortage ‘harms business’

MANY parts of the country will have nowhere to put refuse and recyclables in five years unless the Government pumps

The 2.5 billion is needed to provide a range of infrastructure, including material recovery facilities, composters, digesters, thermal treatment and residual landfill, the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) says.

The country needs to think seriously about the ongoing impacts of our inadequate waste infrastructure, the CIF said. It added that a shortage of waste infrastructure and high costs are a deterrent to indigenous investment.

Our previous status as a low-cost, low-level of service waste economy has changed to one of very high cost and low level of service. A recent survey by the CIF showed that landfill gate charges nationwide range between 125 per ton in Donegal and 215 per ton in Cork.

The charges are almost three times the average charge for landfill or incineration in the EU and places the State at a competitive disadvantage in relation to its European trading competitors. This also acts as an effective constraint on economic growth.

CIF spokesman Kevin Gilna said that, of all the NDP investment programmes, the provision of solid waste infrastructure is the most disappointing.

“The regional operational programmes envisaged an investment of 825m, of which 571m would come from the private sector through Public Private Partnerships,” said Mr Gilna.

“This investment has failed to materialise, with the result that many areas of the country will have no disposal capacity within a five-year time frame unless urgent action is taken to provide a range of infrastructure, including material recovery facilities, composters, digesters, thermal treatment and residual landfill.”

The CIF estimates that an investment of at least 2.5 billion is required to provide the entire infrastructure as envisaged in the regional waste plan. As well as funding, the pervasive “not-in-my-backyard” syndrome needs also to be addressed. A political consensus on the way forward needs to be adopted, but progress will continue to be hindered by the fact the country is divided into some 10 waste regions, all of which operate independently of one another.

“The quite bizarre situation is that it is legal to export waste from any Irish county for incineration in Germany, but it is illegal to take waste across a county boundary.

“The seriousness of the situation is underlined by the fact that it costs 200 per ton to dispose of waste in Dublin compared to an average of 60 per ton in most other EU countries. This acts as a deterrent to inward investment and to indigenous industrial and commercial innovation and development,” said Mr Gilna.

The CIF wants the Government to establish a national waste authority, enact essential infrastructure legislation to streamline planning and compulsory land purchase procedures, and update the regional waste plan.