Vol. 537 No. 3
36 Ms Clune asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government if he will report on the progress made in the level of recycling of construction and demolition waste; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15902/01]
The latest official data on construction and demolition waste recovery is contained in the National Waste Database Report for 1998, published by the Environmental Protection Agency. This report indicates that more than 2.7 million tonnes of construction and demolition waste was sent to landfill in 1998, of which almost 1.2 million tonnes or 43% was recovered and used for construction purposes or as landfill cover.
The 1998 policy statement on waste management, Changing our Ways, which has as its main aim a radical reduction in national reliance on landfill, recognised that the construction industry has the primary responsibility to ensure the environmentally sound management of construction and demolition waste. In it, the industry was challenged to treat waste as a resource and to take practical steps to achieve the recycling of at least 50% of such waste within five years and at least 85% over a 15 year period. The industry was invited to devise and implement a coherent programme of voluntary measures, involving effective least-cost solutions, to meet these national targets.
In response to the targets set in Changing our Ways, a dedicated task force was established by the forum for the construction industry to co-ordinate the development of a voluntary industry-wide programme to meet the proposed recovery targets. I understand the task force has concluded its deliberations and I expect to receive substantive proposals for an action programme, involving a comprehensive matrix of measures and incorporating an implementation timetable, very shortly.
It is estimated that about 30% of the waste that goes to landfill constitutes construction and demolition waste. It is, therefore, a very valuable resource and much could be done with it. Will the Minister give details of the audits he proposes to implement of actual waste production because it is a grey area? We are not sure how much waste is produced and how much is disposed to landfill. Will he also outline the meetings he has had with the construction industry with a view to developing methods of recycling this waste?
We outlined what we wanted the construction industry to do as part of the implementation of our national waste management policy, Changing our Ways. The industry set up a task force to examine ways and means of dealing with construction and demolition waste in a cost effective manner by trying to recover as much of it as possible for use as a resource. Currently about 43% of it is recovered and used for construction purposes or as landfill cover.
The task force has been meeting and is now in a position to let me have a final report. I understand this will make a number of recommendations, including auditing of waste, ensuring a cessation of the use of unauthorised operators including carriers for the management of construction and demolition waste, developing codes of best practice, identifying and initiating flagship demonstration projects that would maximise the recycling of construction and demolition waste, and ensuring formal mechanisms for the recording and reporting of such waste so that we will know what is generated and where it is going. I have also asked for proposals on developing a network of construction and demolition waste recycling facilities, developing markets for recycled construction and demolition waste, providing incentives for that to happen and initiating a national awareness campaign on the issue.
The Minister has outlined a number of measures. Has the task force considered the possibility of making it a condition of a planning permission for projects over a certain size that the waste generated should be recycled?
That can be done if a local authority so desires. I am not sure whether it is addressed specifically in the report. I am giving a general indication from earlier discussions I have had as to what might or might not be in the report. Local authorities can impose various conditions. If we go down the road of trying to recover as much construction and demolition waste as we would like and of trying to reach the target of 85% recovery within the 15 year period, action along the lines suggested by the Deputy would have to be part of that.
