Vol. 537 No. 3
102 Mr. McDowell asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the targets and timescale for the reduction of bio-degradable municipal waste going to landfill; the measures he intends to take to reach these targets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15958/01]
Council Directive 1999/31/EC on the landfill of waste provides that, not later than July 2003, member states must set up a national strategy for the reduction of biodegradable waste going to landfills. These strategies should include measures to achieve specified diversion targets, in particular by means of recycling, composting, biogas production or materials-energy recovery. Not later than July 2006, biodegradable municipal waste, MSW, quantities consigned to landfill must be reduced to 75% of the total amount by weight of biodegradable MSW produced in 1995. Further targets laid down for 2009 and 2016 in this regard are 50% and 35%, respectively.
These targets were anticipated in the 1998 policy statement, Changing our Ways, which provided, inter alia, for a minimum 65% reduction in biodegradable wastes consigned to landfill, and the development of composting and other feasible biological treatment facilities capable of treating up to 300,000 tonnes of biodegradable waste per annum.
The directive's targets have also informed the development by local authorities of local and regional waste management plans. Typically, these plans include proposals for household segregation and separate collection of organic and dry recyclable, including paper-card, wastes in urban areas; promotion of home composting, especially in rural areas; an increased network of civic amenity sites and waste transfer stations; and a range of centralised composting and other biological treatment facilities for municipal organic and garden wastes.
The plans will accordingly provide a basis for the proposed national strategy required under the landfill directive.
The national development plan anticipates some £650 million of capital investment in waste management infrastructure. Of this, some £100 million in Exchequer and EU funding will be provided to support the development of requisite waste recovery infrastructure, including biological treatment facilities, over the life of the plan.
