Joe Walsh
Question:52 Mr. J. Walsh asked the Minister for the Environment the number and nature of joint projects which are currently under way regarding the problem of pollution between his Department and the private industrial sector. [3035/96]
Written Answers. - Sources of Pollution.
My Department participates in, or is associated with, a range of initiatives and joint studies with industrial sectors, with a view to reducing or eliminating sources of pollution. These include the REPAK initiative, a voluntary agreement by IBEC for the collection and recycling of packaging waste; and a study, jointly funded by National Newspapers of Ireland and my Department, on the use of shredded newspaper as animal bedding. Other areas for voluntary agreement by industrial sectors are currently being explored. The Society of the Irish Motor Industry has recently launched a pilot project for the collection by the motor trade of spent automotive batteries. My Department has also consulted with the Irish Detergent and Allied Producers Association with a view to the introduction of a voluntary code to pursue the target of phosphate-free detergent usage.
With regard to funding for pollution reduction projects, my Department has operated a scheme of waste recycling grants to private sector organisations and local authorities under which 99 grants, totalling £2.2 million, have been paid since 1989 to 57 bodies undertaking a wide variety of waste recycling activities. A new EU co-financed scheme of waste recycling grants was launched by my Department on 4 April 1996.