‘Need to rethink waste strategy’

INWARD investment is being hit by the soaring cost of waste management, a top industry expert has warned.

Don O’Sullivan, a director of the Construction Industry Federation, has called for a re-think of our waste management strategy if we are not to be buried under our own waste in a few years. And he has questioned the need for 10 incinerators in this country.

Mr O’Sullivan said the waste management issue needed to be put under the microscope and warned of the need for us to rethink our whole national strategy.

Another problem is that future waste needs are based on a 50% recycling programme, an extremely ambitious figure to achieve.

His scepticism is fuelled by the fact that Germany and other top recycling countries are struggling to get beyond 35%.

Mr O’Sullivan said we are living in fantasy land. “Since the current plan was set out in 1998 the level of waste in the country has doubled, so the implications of where we are currently are deadly serious”, he said.

“We have a crazy situation in that we have 10 waste disposal plans based on the regional division of the country.

“All of them are based on handling only the waste generated in their own areas.

“Counties who are stand alone under the 1998 strategy have no plans for incinerators and are hoping that other regions will deal with their waste as they run out of land fill options”.