Waste industry in need of a national strategy

ILLEGAL dumping of commercial waste is running at up to one million tonnes annually one of the sector’s major players warned yesterday.

“It’s a case of see no evil, hear no evil’ said Jim Barry, chief executive NTR Plc, which controls the Irish toll road system in Dublin and owns Greenstar, the waste disposal group which last week spent €4m last in a major move into the UK market.

The company, Materials Recovery will facilitate major expansion by the group of its waste management operations. On the Irish waste question Mr Barry said there was far too much ambiguity in the Irish situation that needed urgent clarification .

In that context it would be a step in the right direction if the government appointed an “overarching body” to manage the waste question.

“This is just not sustainable. It has to be sorted out,” Mr Barry said.

Uncertainty increases the cost of capital so that Ireland ends up with a more expensive waste infrastructure because the lack of clear rules increases the risk and demands higher returns to justify the capital investment in the sector, he said.

“I think the way this is managed on a national basis needs to be reviewed, to address those major issues whether it's a national regulator, or whether it's a national board,” he said.

At present, Mr Barry said, local authorities are competing with the private sector for waste contracts charging below cost to justify their market presence. Planning issues are totally ambivalent with a definite lack of clarity as to who is responsible for what in the sector.

Furthermore, Mr Barry said, the regional strategy is full of ambiguities and in conflict with the EU directive of dealing with waste close to its source of origin. The roles of local authorities and the Environmental Planning Authority have to be clearly spelt out if some coherence is to be brought into the waste management sector, he said.

NTR has spent €90 million in the last few years building up a presence in the Irish market, but the lack of coherent regulation and a clear definition of the roles of the various state agencies leaves too many uncertainties, he said, without clear definition of who is responsible.

Mr Barry said the illegal dumping scandal is going on unabated with waste being transferred illegally to Northern Ireland and also being shipped out of Ireland illegally.

Depending on how the calculations are made the illegal disposal of waste is running at between 500,0000 to 1m tonnes a year, he said.

NTR is committed to the Irish market, given its investment in it, but in the short-term the better organised UK market offers huge potential for its ambitious plans over the next few years. With the purchase of Materials Recovery in the UK Mr Barry said NTR has opened up the possibility of creating a “one-stop shop waste management” operation for industry with sales of up to €400m over the next five to seven years.

While the UK group is young, set up in 2001, Barry believes it has the ability, with the support of the Irish group, to become a major player in the national waste management sector.