Waste disposal ‘should return to local authorities’
However, waste to energy plant operators have claimed that householders could see increases of up to 30% in their bin charges if these recommendations published yesterday are made into policy.
The authors of the International Review of Waste Management Policy had described household collection costs as “astronomically high”, stating some homeowners were paying €400 per year compared to an annual cost of €60 in Britain. The authors of the report, Eunomia Consultants, said they could not find a clear reason for the huge differences in Irish bills.
The international review was commissioned and unveiled yesterday by Environment Minister John Gormley.
The report’s authors recommended that full control over household waste disposal should return to local authorities and that regional waste management plans should be replaced by a single national waste plan.
The report states such changes have “the potential to deliver services more efficiently to the household and would enable local authorities to charge the true costs of collection to households”.
Mr Gormley also announced increases to the landfill levy so that waste disposal operations will be more inclined to choose recycling and reuse over landfill. The levy will increase to €30 per tonne by 2010, to €50 in 2011 and to €75 in 2012. He also stated that he expects the incineration levy will be in the range of €20 to €38 per tonne.
Last night, Ireland’s largest recycling company, Greyhound Recycling and Recovery criticised the minister for only increasing the landfill levy to €30 per tonne compared with the €40 per tonne recommended in the report.
The review also calls for a major improvement in household recycling services with textiles being collected at least monthly, food waste collected separately at least weekly and glass containers at least fortnightly.
CEWEP, the representative body for Europe’s 350 waste-to-energy facilities, described the report as “anything but international, flawed, anti-competitive and out-of-sync with best practice”.
CEWEP vice president Jackie Keaney, who also works for Indaver, the Belgian company seeking to build two incinerators in Ireland, said the report would drag the country backwards.
