How waste handling plans are working

The State's seven regional waste management plans cover Dublin, the midlands, the northeast, the midwest, Connacht, the southeast and Cork city and county.

Counties Wicklow and Kildare opted to remain on their own with some expectation that they could buy into the Dublin plan, and Donegal County Council meets today to decide on a cross-Border regional solution which may involve incineration, or to opt for landfill in the county.

The current state of the regional waste management plan is as follows.

Dublin: Four local authorities - Dublin Corporation, Fingal, South Dublin and Dun Laoghaire. Plan adopted by all four local authorities between December 1998 and May 1999. The region produces 2.3 million tonnes of waste annually. Cost of plan £600 million.

Targets: recycling 60 per cent including composting, biological treatment and construction/demolition waste.

The Dublin city manager, Mr John Fitzgerald, is currently steering the recycling element of the plan, which involves a domestic charge, through the city council.

Mr Fitzgerald told The Irish Times this week that the charges were critical to ensure the ambitious 60 per cent recycling targets of the plan. Homes are to get additional bins and separate collection services for dry recyclables.

A protest group is campaigning against the charge. An anti-incinerator lobby is campaigning against the thermal treatment element of the plan.

Midlands: Five local authorities - Westmeath, Offaly, Laois, Tipperary NR, and Longford. The region produces 152,000 tonnes of waste annually. Cost of plan £225 million. Targets: recycling 46 per cent, thermal treatment 37 per cent and landfill 17 per cent. Laois rejected the plan this month. Longford adjourned for two weeks to see if it should pass the regional plan after it had been dropped by Laois. Other local authorities offered varying interpretations of the plan. NORTHEAST: Four local authorities - Louth, Meath, Cavan and Monaghan. The region produces 520,000 tonnes of waste annually, plus 3.5 million tonnes of agricultural waste. Cost of plan £258 million. Targets: recycling 43 per cent, thermal treatment 39 per cent, landfill 18 per cent.

Louth councillors have already expressed a difficulty with the thermal treatment element of the plan. The council is to vote on its adoption on Wednesday next.

Connacht: six local authorities - Galway Corporation, Galway County Council, Sligo, Mayo, Leitrim and Roscommon. The region produces 596,000 tonnes of waste annually. Cost of plan more than £300 million. Targets: recycling 48 per cent, thermal treatment 33 per cent, landfill 19 per cent. Legal challenges to rejection in Galway. Roscommon rejected incineration and landfill.

Southeast: six local authorities - Waterford Corporation, Waterford County Council, Kilkenny, Carlow, Tipperary South and Wexford. The region produces 350,000 tonnes of waste annually. Cost unknown. Targets: the overall aim of the strategy is to reduce the amount of waste which must be managed by the local authorities by 25 per cent; the rest would be incinerated, leaving ash to be disposed of in landfills.

A local campaign of opposition has been growing since Wexford County Council rejected the incinerator at a vote last January. CORK: two local authorities - Cork County Council and Cork Corporation. The regional plan between Cork Corporation and County Council has been in place for five years. While its 70-point plan aims at reduction and recycling, it envisages a new landfill being developed in Co Cork. The existing landfill is scheduled to reach capacity in 2002.

Cork Corporation is to sort its waste, segregating recoverables and sending the residue to landfill in Cork county.