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.