Report on future of Clare landfill

A QUESTION mark hangs over the future of Clare’s public central waste management facility.

The county council is preparing a report on the future of the site at Ballyduffbeg, Inagh, which is expected to be discussed by councillors next month.

It is understood the review was prepared before Limerick County Council advertised for tenders for consultants to oversee the sale of its main landfill at Gortadroma — where the annual capacity is two-and-a-half times the licensed capacity of Ballyduffbeg.

The west Limerick facility is the largest landfill in the mid-west. Official projections have indicated the amount of waste to be landfilled in the region will drop by 100,000 tonnes, or 57%, in the next five years.

The Clare County Council report concluded the authority has four main options — leave the facility as it is or close the landfill operation either temporarily or permanently and operate the recycling and civic amenity facility only.

It proposed the council could invite expressions of interest from organisations to lease or buy the facility and operate it either as it is or with alternative forms of waste disposal as outlined above or for organisations to operate it on their own.

“There is about one year remaining in the present cell and the remaining cell in Phase Three will take about a further 18 months to fill at the present rate of filling,” the report stated.

It revealed the number of tonnes landfilled and gate fees in Ballyduffbeg dropped from 58,930 tonnes and €6,691,821 in 2003 to an estimated 21,000 tonnes and €2,100,000 this year.