JOINT COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 25 Jan 2006

Waste Management: Presentations.

Chairman

We are dealing with the report on the recycling of household waste in Ireland. I welcome Mr. Frank Austin, Mr. Aidan Conroy and Mr. Bernard Egan from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council; Dr. Mary Walsh and Mr. Gerry Walsh from Cork City Council; and Mr. Brendan McGrath, Mr. Michael Griffin, Mr. Vincent Collins and Ms Lorraine Hennessy from Meath County Council. The format of the meeting will be for each of the three local authorities to make a short presentation followed by questions from members. I draw the attention of witnesses to the fact that members of the committee have absolute privilege but that the same privilege does not apply to witnesses appearing before the committee. Members are also reminded of the long-standing practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the House or an official by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.

I invite Mr. Austin from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to make his presentation.

Mr. Frank Austin

Let me first introduce my colleagues. They are Mr. Aidan Conroy, administrative officer, environmental enforcement section, and Mr. Bernard Egan, senior executive engineer, environmental section. I thank the committee for giving us the opportunity to appear before it. Members have been provided with a hard copy of our presentation.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council was established on 1 January 1994. This followed the dissolution of Dublin County Council and the Borough Corporation of Dún Laoghaire and their replacement with three new administrative counties, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council covers an area of 126 sq km south of Dublin city, 70 km of coastline along the north and east of the county. The county consists of extensive suburbs with embedded towns and villages, agricultural lands and uplands of outstanding natural beauty. Approximately 54% of the county is urban, while 46% may be described as rural. The population is approximately 190,000 or 66,000 households. While there is strong economic activity within the county, there are also areas of disadvantage. Two of the RAPID programme areas are located within Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.

On waste management planning, we work in close co-operation with Fingal County Council, South Dublin County Council and Dublin City Council, working at a regional level in major infrastructure and service provision. I understand copies of the Dublin regional waste plan were given to the joint committee during the presentation by South Dublin County Council. The plan outlines four subsets of waste management services in the region, first, prevention awareness; second, collection and recycling; third, infrastructure development; and fourth, regulation and enforcement. A specific set of actions is required in each area. The council runs an environmental awareness programme targeted at various sectors which underpins all its activities. The regional information website www.dublinwaste.ie is an excellent resource and provides significant information. In dealing with waste reduction at source, it is important to consider issues such as the elimination of waste, packaging, redesign and other measures that can help to reduce waste, thereby minimising the amount of material to be recycled. A refuse collection service is provided directly by the local authority. The waste is bailed in the county at Ballyogan and transported to the regional landfill at Arthurstown, County Kildare. Some services are provided by contractors but these are fully funded by the council.

The main recycling service is the green bin dry recyclable service provided for all households in the county by means of individual or communal bins and green bags. It is also provided for 110 local schools and in the Dublin region generally. The council has an extensive bring back network, comprising of approximately 58 bring banks, as well as operating a recycling centre at Glasthule. In addition, a contractor operates a civic recycling centre at Ballyogan which also has a waste electrical and electronic equipment reception centre.

The council introduced a pay-by-weight system in January 2005. This system has had a significant impact in terms of a reduction in the volume of waste presented for collection and resulted in a large increase in recycling. The council collected and disposed of approximately 37,000 tonnes of household waste, a reduction of more than 40% from 2004, while approximately 12,000 tonnes of waste are recycled through the green bin service in Dún Laoghaire, an increase of 24% on the figure for the previous year. Recycling in Dún Laoghaire has increased over the year from 2004 to 2005 from a figure of 17% to 30%, resulting in a reduction in the volume of waste diverted to landfill. The handout which contains a chart of the tonnages provides more detail of the impact of the pay-by-weight system.

The introduction of the pay-by-weight system resulted in increased requests from the public for the provision of bring banks and the introduction of plastic recycling. In November 2004 the council opened a civic recycling facility in Ballyogan and has introduced a number of plastic recycling bring banks. The council receives significant capital funding from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government for major infrastructure such as the material recovery facility and bio-waste plants, proposed under the plan for the Dublin region.

One of the most important challenges the council faces is how to overcome the perception that recycling is a revenue generating or costless exercise. At regional level, the green bin service costs the four Dublin local authorities approximately €27 million per year which includes the cost associated with collecting, transporting, segregating, processing, shipping, marketing and so on. Repak, the packaging industry body, contributes €1 million, while the sale of the product collected from households generates approximately €500,000. A significant cost arises in providing this service. A large proportion of the material in the green bins comprises of newspapers and magazines and it is important the newspaper industry should make a contribution to support the cost of recycling material. This should also apply to plastics which are due to become part of the service provided by the council once the facilities are in place to recover it. It costs Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council approximately €5.2 million per year to provide the service. The household waste charge applied by the council is well below the cost of the waste management service. This is a significant issue.

A number of challenges must be overcome if the council is to meet the ambitious targets set out in its waste management plan. The recycling target is 59%. Household size is decreasing but the increased number of households generates more waste. People are generating more waste as their spending power increases. The main challenge is to find innovative ways to extend and enhance access to the three Rs programme, reduce, recycle and reuse, at home and in the workplace. Part of the challenge is to construct an effective and efficient system that connects homes, factories, offices and schools to the industries that need and want waste materials to make new products. Despite citizen goodwill, the council believes it must continally explain that environmental benefits have an economic cost. We will also need support for the successful introduction of the brown bin service which will require us to work harder in our information and communication plan.

Fingal County Council has introduced a pilot brown bin collection system. To build on the goodwill of citizens we recognise that we must provide accessible infrastructure, an area in which we are currently experiencing much difficulty. We are losing bring bank sites throughout the Dublin network because, as a result of vandalism and dumping, we are being requested to remove them from private developments such as shopping centres. We are experiencing difficulties in finding new locations because we operate in an urban environment and face objections to the location of facilities in close proximity to housing. Accordingly, we have a significant challenge in reaching the level of sites required under the national service indicators.

We must develop new models to deal with the higher densities now apparent in the built environment of the Dublin region. Apartment living requires new models to deliver a service to the public.

On the polluter pays principle, bearing in mind the need for cost recovery, it is important to find a fair and balanced contribution towards the cost of providing a recycling service. We are working at regional level to find an appropriate balance among the contributions from industry, producers and householders.

The next major service initiative is the roll-out of the brown bin collection service which will complete the system that requires residents to separate their waste into three streams — a brown bin for wet, compostable waste; a green bin for dry, recyclable waste, and a grey bin for residual and non-recyclable dry waste. It is planned to provide two biological treatment facilities at Ballyogan in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and at Kilshane in Fingal to cater for the regional system. These facilities will need to be in place before we can provide the service. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council will this week advertise for the procurement of the design-build-operate contract for the facility at Ballyogan. We have recently been advised that we will receive grant aid from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government towards the cost of providing this facility which we hope will be in place in 18 months to two years' time when we will commence the roll-out of the system. In the meantime Fingal County Council is operating a pilot collection system that will provide us with the information we need on the service.

We continue our strategy to promote greater reduction in the volume and recycling of waste and will seek to identify new ways of expanding the network of recycling centres. A new regional materials recovery facility is to be located at Ballymount in south Dublin. We have recently been advised that its fit-out will also receive grant aid from the Department. The facility will enable us to introduce the plastic waste stream to the green bin and increase the frequency of the service. However, it will incur more costs. As a result producer initiatives are critical to ensure cost recovery. The main emphasis of the plan is on waste minimisation and awareness, both of which underpin our reduction and recycling strategy in the region.

Chairman

I thank Mr. Austin for his presentation. I now ask Mr. Gerry Walsh from Cork City Council to make his presentation.

Mr. Gerry Walsh

I thank the committee for giving me the opportunity to make this presentation. I am the acting senior engineer for environment. We have had some success in recent years in introducing waste recovery and reduction initiatives. My colleague, Dr. Mary Walsh, will make the presentation.

Dr. Mary Walsh

There is one landfill site in the Cork City Council area. It is located on the Kinsale Road. In the late 1990s it accepted over 300,000 tonnes of waste each year but this figure has been reduced to 43,000 tonnes following the introduction of a number of initiatives.

The construction and demolition waste recycling facility, funded by the EU LIFE programme, accepted 150,000 tonnes of such waste in each of the years 1997 to 2002. We have banned commercial waste from our landfill site. This has resulted in the diversion of 75,000 tonnes of waste from landfill each year. We have introduced waste reduction initiatives within council departments responsible for cleaning, housing, parks, roads, etc.

The city council collects waste from more than 85% of the city's 44,000 households which, according to the last census, comprise a population of 123,000. In addition, we collect a range of recyclables from these households and commercial sources. In total, our recycling initiatives in 2005 resulted in the diversion of about 19,000 tonnes of waste from landfill, of which 50% came from households. The other 50% was commercial waste. The initiatives that led to the diversion of this waste are set out for members.

Door-to-door collections of dry recyclables accepted from domestic customers whose refuse accounts are in order were introduced in the city in August 2004. The first phase of the scheme began in 2004, was expanded in October that year and has been operated citywide since April 2005. The city council waste operations section makes the collections on a fortnightly basis, whereas our normal refuse collection continues to be carried out by waste operations staff on a weekly basis. We distribute branded plastic sacks which are useful in that we can reject those containing inappropriate materials. The sacks are delivered free of charge to customers and can be filled with paper, magazines, cardboard, drink and food cans, Tetra Pak cartons and plastic bottles and containers. Once we make the collection, the material is transported to a private waste facility in Glanmire owned by Greenstar where it is segregated, bailed and sent to licensed recycling facilities. We receive monthly reports on the quantities of waste accepted and recycled, as well as certificates of recycling for the materials collected. During 2005, 6,000 tonnes of dry recyclables were collected in this way and we expect during a complete calendar year to collect between 7,000 and 7,500 tonnes.

The success of the dry recyclable collection service has persuaded us to change our general refuse collection service from a weekly to a fortnightly basis. Negotiations have commenced with the trade unions on this change. Over 75% of the material collected is composed of newspaper and cardboard, 14% is plastic, while cans make up a smaller percentage. Between 5.5% and 6% consists of residual waste which is not recyclable but has to be placed in landfills.

As well as dry recyclable collections, we operate 30 bring sites throughout the city and have proposed in our waste management plan to provide seven additional sites in each of the five years between 2004 and 2009. We collected a wide range of recyclables at these sites, including glass, cans, textiles, batteries, paper and cardboard. Since introducing the dry recyclable collection scheme, however, we no longer accept the same range of dry recyclables at the bring sites but now take only glass and, in some cases, drink cans. The only material not collected in the dry recyclable collection bins and for which we need to provide facilities is glass. In 2005 we collected almost 1,900 tonnes of glass and 20 tonnes of aluminium cans at bring sites.

In addition to bring sites, we operate a civic amenity site at the Kinsale Road landfill, where we collect a wide range of recyclables, including paper, glass, cardboard, Tetra Pak cartons, metals, waste electrical and electronic equipment, waste oil and green waste. During 2005 we accepted 1,700 tonnes of material for recycling at the site. Quite a large proportion of this was made up of waste electrical equipment, paper, cardboard and green waste. In our waste management plan we propose to install a new civic amenity site in Mayfield, on the north side of the city, by 2007, although this is subject to the availability of funding and the granting of planning permission.

The city and county councils operate a chemcar collection service for domestic hazardous waste, in partnership with a number of pharmaceutical companies in Cork. There are 12 chemcar collections throughout the year, each at a different location, with eight in the county and four in the city. The division is based on population. Materials collected include old batteries, medicines, paints, herbicides, pesticides and fluorescent tubes. The sponsoring companies include Eli Lilly and Company, Glaxo SmithKline, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer Ireland Pharmaceuticals and Schering-Plough. During 2005 the chemcar collections retrieved seven tonnes of hazardous waste. While the quantity is small, the fact that the most hazardous components of domestic waste did not go to landfill sites makes the collection very worthwhile. It improves the quality of waste going to landfill and reduces the potentially damaging environmental impact of such hazardous waste.

The council accepts Christmas trees for recycling every January at various locations throughout the city. Last year we collected 85 tonnes which were shipped and composted. We sell compost bins at a subsidised rate at various sales, most of which are held in RAPID programme areas. To date, we have sold approximately 500 bins. The council, in association with other Cork City Council directorates and community and housing associations, also sponsors and promotes community recycling initiatives. Last week, for example, we installed a new community composting scheme in the Ardbhaile housing estate, Mayfield, which is located in a RAPID programme area. The in-vessel composter will service approximately 150 households and will deal with the organic element of their waste.

The various household waste recycling initiatives led to the diversion of almost 10,000 tonnes of household waste in 2005, which represents a recycling rate of 22%. The remaining 78%, representing 34,000 tonnes, is sent to the Kinsale Road landfill site. The council does not accept commercial waste at the landfill site but operates a number of commercial waste recycling schemes.

The dry recyclable scheme is a bag based system for the collection of paper, cardboard and plastic from commercial premises in the city. The scheme is operated in partnership with a private recycling company. The council sells specially branded bags to commercial customers who fill them and put them out for collection. The bags are collected by the private company, Cork Recycling Company, which separates, bales and recycles the waste. The total cost of the service is met by the sale price of bags, €135 for 50 bags. The scheme started in the city centre in parallel with the introduction of wheelie bins a number of years ago. It proved to be very successful and has been expanded to the rest of the city. Approximately 500 tonnes of recyclables are collected annually under the scheme.

The council operates a number of other commercial waste recycling facilities, including one for green waste and one for timber waste. Both facilities are operated in conjunction with a private partner, CTO Environmental, under a PPP arrangement. Under the green waste recycling scheme, green or garden waste is collected, mostly from horticultural contractors, shredded and composted in windrows on site. The compost generated, given that the long-term plan for the Kinsale Road landfill is to turn it into a public park, is used on site as part of the capping process and in finalising the contours of the site.

On the timber waste recycling facility, we accept timber waste on site, shred it and then transport it off-site for use in the manufacture of fibre board and as a boiler fuel. In 2005 we accepted almost 2,000 tonnes of green waste and 7,500 tonnes of timber waste for recycling at the two facilities which have proved to be successful. The commercial waste recycling facilities, in conjunction with the bag collection service, have resulted in the diversion of almost 10,000 tonnes of commercial waste from landfill. They are the statistics for the recycling of commercial and household waste in the Cork City Council area.

Chairman

I now invite Mr. Griffin from Meath County Council to make his presentation.

Mr. Brendan McGrath

I will make the presentation on behalf of Meath County Council. I am accompanied by Mr. Griffin. The other two members mentioned by the Chairman were unable to attend.

I thank the Chairman and members of the joint committee for giving us the opportunity to address it. The presentation will focus on the progress achieved in the recycling of household waste in County Meath. While I am sure other counties believe they have the fastest growing population in Ireland in percentage terms, according to the last census, Meath had the fastest with a percentage increase of 22.1%, bringing the population to just over 134,000. In real terms, however, the population now exceeds 140,000. The population of the county has doubled since 1971, resulting in enormous pressure being placed on infrastructure, including transport, roads, water supplies, sewerage and, not least, waste management facilities.

The first waste management plan for County Meath covered the period from 1999 to 2004 and was part of a regional waste strategy. Meath forms part of the north-east region in conjunction with counties Louth, Cavan and Monaghan. The plan contained an objective to provide for kerbside collection of dry recyclables in population centres of 500 or more. The waste management strategy is being reviewed and was recently withdrawn from public display. We anticipate the new plan will be completed and in place by April. We are pleased to inform the committee that kerbside collection of dry recyclables has been extended to approximately 88% of households in County Meath which avail of a waste collection service. Waste collection in the county has been privatised since 1990. There are seven collectors operating within the county which include large national companies together with local operators which also provide service in the Dublin and adjoining midlands region.

Meath County Council is the nominated authority for the administration of waste collection permits in the north-east region covering counties Meath, Cavan, Louth and Monaghan. The county's urban population has increased significantly in recent years with a notable increase in household formulation. Accommodation units are now much smaller with approximately 10% of households living in apartments and similar type accommodation. Settlement patterns vary greatly across the county with the north west and west having less than 25 persons resident per square kilometre. Meath is a county in transition in that its population is changing from a rural to an urban one. In urban areas there are settlement patterns well in excess of 50 persons per square kilometre. At present the county's urban and rural populations are equally divided. Meath County Council has provided a network of bring centres and recycling centres to support but not curtail the extension of kerbside recycling services to every household. Hazardous waste collection is facilitated twice yearly to service private households. We are examining opportunities to diversify waste types accepted at our recycling facilities.

We acknowledge that not all households are availing of a waste collection service. There is still backyard burning of waste, mainly in rural areas where the practice has been to follow the traditional way of dealing with non-organic and non-metallic elements of the waste stream.

We acknowledge that small-scale illegal dumping remains a problem, despite the deployment of significant resources to this area. It should be noted that the perpetrators of this practice are becoming much smarter and taking steps to conceal their identities by removing documents bearing names, etc. This makes the task of tracing them much more difficult as it undermines the traditional approach of going through waste to find information on those who dumped it.

Progress is being made through greater public awareness of environmental obligations and regulation of the waste industry. Meath County Council supports a wide range of anti-litter, environmental awareness and pride in place initiatives which heighten individual and community awareness of waste and litter issues.

The quality of data on waste generation is improving as enforcement levels increase. Meath County Council audits all operators collecting household waste and has undertaken joint inspections of waste transfer facilities with the Environmental Protection Agency. All collectors now use material recovery facilities or transfer stations.

GPS technology and bespoke IT systems are used by many collectors to track collections. However, details of the number of customers served are not always as readily accessible as they need to be. This area constitutes the greatest challenge to local authorities and service providers. The national waste database report attempts to quantify the level of waste not collected by private operators and local authorities. Such estimates are dependent on disclosure of customer numbers by individual operators and the database assumes every household has an individual account with a service provider.

The level of waste unaccounted for is unclear for the following reasons: the growth in the number of apartment complexes which account for up to 10% of households but just 1% to 2% of waste collectors' customers owing to the increased use of management companies; the sharing of waste services by neighbours and extended families; the sale of prepaid bags and tags by collectors without formal invoicing of individual households by the collectors; the use of recycling facilities by households to deal with their waste; and the limited use of prepaid bag collection services.

Notwithstanding these factors, Meath County Council is acutely aware that further progress in the recovery of recyclables is achievable. Such progress requires local authorities to create an operating environment in which a sustainable balance is achieved between the availability of kerbside recycling services and recycling centres. It also requires that householders deal with the waste generated by their households in a sustainable manner and that service alternatives which demonstrate the monetary advantages of recycling over disposal are readily available.

Further progress in delivering regional recycling targets for municipal waste is dependent on the following factors: the delivery of supporting infrastructure to deal with specific waste streams such as organic and biodegradable wastes; the strengthening of enforcement powers under the waste collection permitting systems; the deployment of additional enforcement officers to support the implementation of statutory requirements such as by-laws; the successful roll-out and implementation of use-based charging systems which demonstrate the monetary benefit of recycling to the householder; the continuation of the current national media campaign supported by environmental awareness programmes at local level; and the source segregation of waste by each householder.

Meath County Council is committed to the continued improvement of household recycling rates and trusts this submission will be of assistance to the joint committee.

Chairman

Several members are offering. I ask speakers to refer to the local authority to which their questions are addressed.

Deputy Grealish

I welcome the delegations from Cork City Council and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and Meath county councils and thank them for their comprehensive presentations. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend last week's meeting at which my local authority made a presentation because I had to attend a family function.

Members agree recycling is the way forward. We try to promote this approach in our constituencies. The recently published Connacht waste management plan proposes an incinerator for Galway. Several companies have proposed building a recycling facility but public opposition to the development of recycling and waste management facilities is strong in our towns and villages.

Members of the public must make up their minds as to whether they want incinerators or recycling facilities. Two planning applications were made in my constituency and meetings in respect of them were well attended. We must get word out that members of the public must support planning permission for recycling facilities.

Bottle banks are a major issue. They give rise to noise and people do not want them in their neighbourhoods, although we must put them somewhere. I discussed this with my local authority. When planning permission is being granted for a major estate with up to 300 units, an area should be provided for recycling facilities such as bottle banks and bin storage. They must be located in growing estates. No one wants them but they must be placed somewhere. The major problem with bottle banks is the number of times they are emptied. They overflow and people leave bags of rubbish in the vicinity, which obliges local authorities to clean up the mess. That is not acceptable.

I was interested to hear Mr. Frank Austin say that the newspaper industry pays nothing towards recycling. It is a major contributor, particularly with Sunday newspapers. That issue must be addressed at either Government or local level, whereby the industry must contribute something to the cost of recycling.

It was stated that only €500,000 was raised on the sale of recycling goods, while the cost was €27 million. That seems a small amount. Is there a market for recycled products? Is it becoming more difficult to sell them? Does the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government provide adequate support in promoting recycling facilities? Recycling is the way forward and if we can increase the amount we recycle, there will be no need for most incinerators. The waste generated must go somewhere and we cannot recycle everything but it is heartening to hear from all local authorities that landfill is declining and that recycling is increasing. We are moving forward and I thank those involved because a great deal of work and much publicising are required to encourage people to recycle. How many people are recycling in each local authority area?

I congratulate the delegations, they are doing a great job but there is much more to do. Whatever support the Government can give, it should provide to local authorities to promote recycling.

Mr. Walsh

I am here on behalf of Cork City Council. The Deputy mentioned incineration and because we are in the city, we cannot comment directly on it but it is part of the joint waste management strategy for the city and county. It is a lower priority solution; when all the other infrastructure is in place, incineration can be provided. It was not the first option, the other initiatives should be used first and then it can be used to deal with residual waste.

I acknowledge the strong opposition to incineration. The incineration plant has received approval and if it proceeds — we presume it will — it will be run by Indaver Ireland. However, there is strenuous opposition to the plant because there is a difficulty in convincing people it is safer to incinerate waste properly than to burn it in the backyard. There is a problem nationwide with backyard burning.

By and large, bottle banks have not presented a major problem in the city, although we have had one or two problems that have been particularly difficult to deal with. Initially, we were surprised that people would go to the trouble of bringing bags of bottles to the bottle bank and then dump the bags as well. That was hard to understand.

Cork City Council's policy is that when planning permission is granted for large developments such as third level institutions or shopping centres, a requirement is imposed on the developer to provide bring banks. As developers have agreed to provide those facilities, the policy has worked.

Deputy Grealish

What happens with residential developments?

Mr. Walsh

For a purely residential development such as a housing estate, we do not impose that requirement because the facility can be provided under the system my colleague, Dr. Mary Walsh, outlined. However, if a development includes apartments along with other things, a planning condition will require that a company or person be appointed to manage the waste and to provide facilities for storing recyclables such as paper, cardboard and plastic. The waste management company will also be obliged to collect that waste for us. It depends on the development but we are keen to include such requirements for waste management in mixed developments — for example, a shop and apartments — because we previously found that waste management tended to get lost in those situations. That is why we insist that a management company provide the facilities and arrange collections.

Another interesting point concerns the products. In this country, we segregate difficult products such as paper and plastic but we do not recycle or process such waste. Ireland is a small country but that is a big issue that needs to be considered. Members may not be aware that vast quantities of paper — approximately 60 containers full — leave Cork for China each Friday. I imagine the same is true for Dublin. Although Ireland is a small country, that is a lot of waste with which we could deal.

As regards recycling, we are confident that all who are included in our city's waste collection system, which is between approximately 85% and 90% of householders, are involved in recycling. I assume people are also using the recycling bags.

Deputy Grealish

Is there major opposition to building recycling facilities such as transfer stations?

Mr. Walsh

Yes. The original strategy of Cork City Council and Cork County Council, prior to the introduction of the waste management plans, was to provide a materials recovery facility in the city and a landfill for residual waste in the county. However, due to strenuous opposition, the MRF did not proceed as planned. The landfill, which is located in Bottlehill, County Cork, also attracted strong opposition but has since been put in place. Another site in the county is being considered for the materials recovery facility.

Mr. Austin

There has been opposition to bottle banks and recycling facilities. One challenge for us is that although people are seeking more recycling facilities, they do not seem to make the connection between those and the need for such things to be provided within their communities.

In the Dublin region there is a proposal similar to that relating to Cork for an incinerator to deal with residual waste. The recycling target is approximately 59% or 60%, which leaves approximately 40% of residual waste to be dealt with, either through incineration or by using a landfill. According to the priority hierarchy, incineration should be used before landfill.

With regard to apartment planning permissions, we are similar to Cork City Council in that we attempt to ensure the incorporation of recycling facilities within the planning permissions. I take the point that mechanisms to deal with waste have not really formed part of the planning process. With the provision of local area plans, how such a plan would deal with waste generated within an area rather than sending it away will become part of the process.

With regard to financial support from the Department, it has indicated that it will provide significant support within the Dublin region for infrastructural elements of the biowaste and materials recycling facilities. Newspaper recycling is a substantial part of the green bin process and at present there is no producer contribution in this regard.

Mr. McGrath

Rather than rehashing all of the other points, with which we largely agree, I ask my colleague to speak about the statistics relating to recycling.

Mr. Michael Griffin

We agree with most of our colleagues' contributions. A recent EPA survey indicated that four out of every five adults are recycling to some extent. In that context, the easiest parts of recycling are dry recyclables such as paper and newspapers, which can easily be placed in bins. The problem is to get people to carry out housekeeping and, for example, wash out tins, cartons and plastic containers, which is very important.

We agree that we have problems across the county in maintaining bring banks. Many of our resources, especially after weekends, are deployed cleaning up these facilities. It is a chicken and egg scenario. If bins are provided to take bags in which bottles are placed, people will put more than just these bags in the bins. As we live in a rural county, there is an issue regarding the balance between provision of bring bank facilities and extending kerbside collection. The provision of a plethora of bring banks in every town and village, although admirable in aspiration, will undermine the economic viability of providing kerbside collection, which private collectors are currently carrying out.

Senator Bannon

I welcome the officers from the three local authorities and compliment them on their submissions. With presentations of this kind in future, the joint committee should perhaps notify Oireachtas Members from the counties involved because they would have a practical knowledge of what is happening.

The representatives from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council stated that they are losing sites for bring banks, etc., because of vandalism, dumping and the general untidy state of facilities close to supermarkets, car parks and amenity areas within their area. What level of supervision is in place at those bring banks? Local authorities throughout the country will have to get their act together in supervising such sites and ensuring that the activities mentioned do not happen. It is important to have bring bank facilities and it would be a concern if local authorities lost sites because of dumping, vandalism and general untidiness. Some people in this country have filthy habits and we should address that issue. Mr. McGrath from Meath County Council referred to the ongoing problem of illegal dumping, albeit on a small scale, in some parts of his county. How many people were prosecuted for illegal dumping in Meath last year? How many of the cases taken to the courts were successful? That is something on which we should have information.

Mr. Griffin

I agree with the Senator regarding the need to improve the level of supervision at bring banks. Our litter wardens are deployed in a planned manner to cover bring banks on a weekly basis. Our local operatives at electoral area level and engineering level also visit them on a daily basis. Having said that, people who want to dispose of their refuse in a way they should not tend not to do so during working hours. To that end we have now started to use covert CCTV systems to try to identify some of those culprits.

As far as illegal dumping is concerned, we have a call management system which logs all calls regarding environmental complaints to the council. Last year we logged some 1,800 complaints. Approximately 1,400 related to litter. The number of on-the-spot fines was approximately 600, two thirds of which were paid. The level of prosecutions, off the top of my head, is approaching 20. The problem here — we alluded to it in our presentation — is that unless a person is seen depositing waste or a member of the public is willing to come forward as a witness it is difficult to obtain a conviction. In many cases witnesses who report seeing somebody depositing litter back off when the case goes to court because they do not want to be seen in court or to stand up and be counted. Their motives are noble and their concerns for their own standing in the community are also noted by us.

Mr. Austin

Our litter wardens and operatives go regularly to the bring banks. There are particular problems at Christmas time when a large volume of people seek to use bring banks to recycle waste. This Christmas we increased resources and doubled up on collections to try to obviate the problem. Despite that, people still left bottles when the banks were full. It is a constant battle to keep control of sites and to retain the co-operation of the community. The sites we have at present are fairly well established and the communities where they are located want to keep them in place. Like Meath, we have tried using CCTV to catch culprits. However, as stated, these people are very hard to catch and are clued in to our methods of obtaining names and addresses and so on.

Mr. Walsh

With regard to bring sites, Cork City Council has one supervisor appointed to maintaining them and keeping them clean by power washing them once a week. We have a litter warden service, as do the other authorities. I cannot give the committee the number of successful prosecutions, but we recently appointed a full-time clerical officer to follow up on prosecutions, ensure that fines are paid and that offenders are brought to court if they do not pay.

Senator Brennan

I thank the witnesses for their attendance. Is construction and demolition waste managed on a commercial basis at no cost to the local authorities? There is much confusion about regional waste management plans, the volume of waste in each of the regions and where it is to be disposed of. What is the proposed acreage of the regional facility? Each of the regional plans has referred to thermal treatment plants, with eight such facilities envisaged for the country. With the reduction of waste tonnage, do the representatives from the local authorities believe one or two such facilities would meet national requirements? Are the local authority proposals for regional thermal treatment plants in the regional waste plans causing resentment?

Mr. Walsh

To clarify the point on construction and demolition waste, as my colleague Dr. Walsh mentioned, we received a grant to provide such a facility at the Kinsale Road landfill site in Cork city where contractors could bring their waste. The materials recovery facility formed part of the strategy for Cork city and county. The original plan was to accept waste from the entire region. The site was quite small, about one acre. The service has ceased and the facility is no longer open to the public. Under the planning process, contractors must now submit proposals on how they will deal with construction and demolition waste. It may well be that they will recycle materials on site, which does happen; they may decide to bring the waste to other sites or they may have to dispose of it. I do not know if that answers the Senator's question.

Senator Brennan

I asked about the proposals of county councils for regional thermal treatment facilities.

Mr. Walsh

As I stated, there was a waste management strategy for the two authorities, city and county, but each had its own plan. Thermal treatment facilities are a lower option in the waste management strategy. In the Cork County Council plan there is planning permission for a hazardous waste incinerator. As far as I know, it is the intention of the council to try to get planning permission for a municipal waste incinerator to process waste from the Ringaskiddy-Cork Harbour area.

Mr. Austin

Construction and demolition waste is subject to a commercial operation. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council's role is in the regulation, licensing and inspection of sites. Dún Laoghaire forms part of the Dublin region and materials recycling and bio-waste facilities, as well as an incinerator, are to be built in Dublin. There will be enough waste in the Dublin region to provide the waste feed for it.

Mr. Griffin

In regard to construction and demolition waste facilities in County Meath, the private sector has taken up the mantle and three such facilities are located in extinct quarries. Both public and private material recovery facilities accept household construction and demolition waste in the county. However, the major issue for Meath County Council is to regulate the amount of soil and stone being used to fill the hole in the ground in agricultural areas. There is a significant overflow from the Dublin area. The most recent regional landfill facility in County Meath has an intake of 88,000 tonnes per annum and a probable lifespan of 25 years. It is built on a 300 acre plot of land, 50 acres of which will be the footprint of the landfill. A planning application for a proposed incinerator with a capacity of 150,000 tonnes per annum will be lodged in the near future. The regional landfill has an intake of 88,000 tonnes per annum.

Chairman

In the context of our report, the joint committee will pursue the issue of the newspaper industry making a contribution towards the cost of recycling material.

Deputy Grealish

Given the number of bins I see on Monday mornings, I welcome that statement.

Chairman

I thank the three local authorities for their presentations. Their reports and comments will be incorporated into our final report on the recycling of household waste. We will keep in touch with them on the matter.

The joint committee adjourned at 12.10 p.m. until 2.30 p.m. on Wednesday, 1 February 2006.