I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern, to the House and wish the Minister, Deputy Cullen, well.
The statements today on waste management are important. I have listened to the many excellent contributions made. During the summer I was disturbed to read an article on waste which stated that County Offaly produced the second highest amount of rubbish in the country. This makes one ask what we are doing and why are we worse than others. The Environmental Protection Agency's national waste database report makes for disturbing reading. Government strategy is to make tough decisions for more recycling and less waste. Ireland is in the midst of a grave waste problem. The challenge of solving the waste problem is not easy and we do not have the luxury of time. Tough decisions have to be made.
Waste has become a defining characteristic of our modern consumer society. The generation of waste in Ireland continues to increase, reflecting economic growth, improved manufacturing and industrial performance, increased population and changing consumption patterns. In excess of 2.2 million tonnes of municipal waste was generated in 2000, an increase of approximately 20% in two years. The average Irish individual generates approximately 580 kg of municipal waste per annum, far in excess of our EU neighbours. We are poorly equipped to deal effectively with this waste stream. We have a limited recycling infrastructure, almost no biological treatment capability and no means of recovering energy from waste.
Although the amount of waste recycled has increased in recent years, we recycled only 12% of waste in 2000. Given that Holland recycles 45% and Germany recycles 42%, Ireland has a long way to go. The remaining 88% of our waste was landfill, often in small, inadequate facilities. We do not know exactly what is happening underground in many of our landfill sites. This situation cannot continue and the modernisation of waste management is now a key priority. In my county, Offaly, only 10% of the population currently recycle waste compared to the European average of 80%. The two main excuses for not recycling are that people have neither the time nor the space to recycle.
Effective waste management is one of the most complex and problematic environmental challenges facing us. There is no magic wand or soft option. Delivery of waste services and infrastructure are, in many respects, inherently more complex than the delivery of other environmental services. Waste streams are very diverse and their management requires consideration of a wide range of environmental, economic and market-related issues. At the same time, waste treatment options are controversial, and there is strong public opposition to proposals for any significant waste infrastructure. As recent cases illustrate, even proposals for relatively small bottle banks and recycling centres attract criticism.
Sound waste management presents significant environmental and lifestyle challenges, which must be confronted. Strenuous efforts must be made and innovative approaches implemented if we are to halt and in time, reverse, the link between waste generation and economic growth. Our objective must be to give practical effect, by means of fiscal and other measures, to the internationally recognised waste hierarchy, which prioritises waste prevention and minimisation.
For waste that cannot be avoided, we need to develop an integrated management infrastructure that utilises a range of available treatment technologies to underpin better service provision, not just by local authorities but by an emerging private waste industry. There is already a sound policy foundation on which to build. Changing our Ways, 1998, set the basis for a strategic regional planning process, emphasising the need for a dramatic reduction in reliance on landfill in favour of a range of preferable waste treatment options. This policy approach was further developed in Preventing and Recycling Waste: Delivering Change, 2002, which provides for a package of new initiatives, funding and revised organisational structures to deliver accelerated change.
Contrary to opinion, real progress has been achieved over recent years. Segregated collection of household waste has been introduced in certain counties. We now have approximately 1,300 bring banks, compared to 400 or 500 in the mid-1990s. That is welcome. Most areas of the country are serviced by recycling centres. Last year, we recycled more than 200,000 tonnes of packaging waste and reached our national target of 25% recycling, as laid down in the European packaging waste directive. The plastic bag levy has had a dramatic effect on our shopping habits and has reduced our use of plastic bags by up to 90%.
Our mindset is changing. The challenge now is to make further, rapid improvements. The cornerstones for any future improvement are the regional waste management plans. These, in line with Government policy and reflecting best international practice, have now been adopted across the country. The plans are designed to tackle the waste problem comprehensively. They include segregation at source and separate collection of recyclable and organic materials in all significant urban areas; extended networks of bring bank facilities for recyclable materials, especially in rural areas; recycling centres and waste transfer stations; biological treatment of green and organic household waste; materials recovery facilities for dry recyclables; thermal treatment facilities and residual landfill requirements.
These regional plans anticipate the recycling or composting of between 40% and 50% of waste, thermal treatment of up to 40%, and landfill for the balance of wastes. We need to drive forward the implementation of these plans intensively across the country. All players must pull in the same direction and with the same degree of focus and urgency.
It is one thing to aspire to eliminate the disposal of waste over a period of one or two decades. However, it is quite another to seek to impose a moratorium on the development of thermal treatment or landfill capacity while we pursue such aspirations. We must be practical and make our decisions based on reality and experience, not aspiration. We cannot prevent and recycle all waste. There will always be residual waste, which must either be thermally treated or landfilled. We must face and address that problem.
Regional waste management plans are not just about incineration. They are about better services for the regions, delivering higher recycling performance, recovering energy from waste which cannot be recycled, and about using landfill as the last resort for residual wastes which cannot otherwise be recovered. Thermal treatment of waste, whether by incineration or other technologies, is only one component of this integrated infrastructure. Any new thermal treatment facilities will be subject to a full environmental impact assessment, planning controls and a rigorous environmental licensing system operated by the Environmental Protection Agency which we respect and trust.
We are coming from behind on the issue of waste management. We have much to do to catch up with our European neighbours. However, building on the work already undertaken, I am confident that, within the next five years, we can together effect a step change for the better in our management of waste.