Ronan Mulhall: New waste resource opportunities
The new waste policy means greater regulation of waste collection, according to Ronan Mulhall, who leads on waste policy at the Department of the Environment.
While it is not ideal to be introducing a new policy in the current economic circumstances, Ireland’s new waste policy is about minimising environmental impacts and maximising economic opportunities, Ronan Mulhall, the Principal Officer for waste policy at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government told delegates at the Environment Ireland conference. In July, Environment Minister Phil Hogan published ‘A Resource Opportunity’.
Ireland is performing well in meeting waste management targets and public awareness and behaviour regarding waste have “hugely improved,” said Mulhall. “There are areas, though, that remain a challenge such as Landfill Directive targets for diversion away from landfill.” The scale of the challenge and the implications of missing the targets “shouldn’t be underestimated and we don’t certainly take them lightly.” The immediate priority for complying with the Landfill Directive will be to ensure that brown bins are rolled out across the country.
Mulhall highlighted some of the key features of the new policy:
• a reduction from ten to three waste management regions, to be shaped by local government reform;
• establishing a national team of waste enforcement officers for deployment in serious cases; and
• placing responsibility on householders for using an authorised waste collection service.
Waste management regional groups are currently finalising evaluations of existing plans, he told delegates, which will be completed by the end of this year. These reviews will shape new plans that will be in place in early 2014.
The notion among some commentators that household waste collection policy had not changed is “far from the truth,” said Mulhall. “While the current market structure is not being changed, the regulation of the market will change significantly.” The permitting system is being revised, enforcement will be robust and flat charging, which does not incentivise better waste management, will end.
Customer charters will be compulsory so that consumers know what level of service to expect. The collection industry will be expected “to up its game in providing information to their customers.”
Waste and environmental crimes involving “serious criminal elements” have been a major concern in recent times, Mulhall told the conference. State agencies, including the gardaí, “will be building on existing, very good relationships to tackle this.” The range and nature of penalties for environmental crimes will be reviewed, to be completed next year. The emphasis will shift away from the tax-payer paying for the consequences of others’ actions.
“Ireland will reflect, in its policies and plans, the prominence that the new Directive gives to prevention,” Mulhall said regarding the waste hierarchy, and the department will build on the work of the National Waste Prevention Programme.
Re-use of waste hasn’t received as much focus as it should have in the past, he claimed, but is an “area for businesses, communities and householders to benefit.”
While there has been “considerable progress over the last decade” in recycling, “we need to focus on opportunities for the development of domestic recycling industries,” Mulhall stated. The management of collected materials “needs attention so that we get good quality.” Irish recyclates materials will have to compete in very competitive markets “and the higher quality, obviously the better growth we’ll get in those markets.”
In the area of waste recovery, the department will promote a move away from disposal towards recovery and higher elements in the hierarchy. This shift “is going to be underwritten by ensuring that the landfill levy contains its dissuasive effect.” Other options such as landfill bans “will be considered in light of how we’re performing against diversion targets” and alternatives that are being developed.
Mulhall concluded by stating his hope that in ten years’ time, waste prevention would be “second nature in Irish businesses and in Irish households” and that a range of technologies would be in place to derive maximum value from waste in terms of resources, value and jobs.
