Only 10 local authorities have enough licensed space for their waste in 2002, a survey conducted by The Irish Times has established. They are in Monaghan, Cavan, Galway County, Tipperary North, Clare, Limerick, Kerry, Laois, Offaly and Westmeath.
Some of the rest are hoping to ship rubbish to a neighbouring local authority under a regional waste management plan, while many are seeking permission from the Environmental Protection Agency to extend existing dumps.
However, with EU criticism of the EPA for licensing the Waterford County Council dump at Tramore, the future for many local authority dumps is less than certain.
Some of those badly affected include Sligo, which has had no landfill for many years and has exported its waste to Donegal. Now, faced with its own problems, Donegal has thrown Sligo out and the waste is destined for Mayo.
While the arrangement is somewhat less than reassuring, it is better than that in Leitrim, which has yet to finalise what it will do when space runs out next year. Roscommon is in a similar position.
Much of the problem stems from the failure of those elected to adopt realistic waste management plans over a number of years. While county managers are empowered to make such plans where councillors fail, the extra year the process took was a year's landfill space many counties did not have.
In Dublin, the £600 million waste management plan includes a thermal treatment plant at Ringsend, which faces much local opposition. There is about a year left in Baleally, while the county's facility at Kill, Co Kildare, will accept baled waste until 2004.
In the midlands, capacity is available in north Tipperary and Offaly and elements of the strategy includes new recycling banks and the appointment of environment awareness officers. There is also provision to thermally treat 37 per cent of its rubbish.
In the north-east, which includes Meath, Louth, Cavan and Monaghan, there has been a busy start to recycling and reduction. The EPA is considering an application for extension of an existing landfill in Co Louth while the Basketstown landfill in Co Meath is to close at the end of this year.
Co Wicklow is hoping to extend its facilities at Rampere in the west of the county but with the Ballymurtagh landfill near Avoca already full, the local authority urgently needs a solution. One may arrive in the form of a new dump at Ballynagran, but there is much local opposition. Co Kildare will continue to send waste to Dublin which ironically is then baled and dumped by the Dublin local authorities back in Co Kildare.
In the south-east, Waterford is rapidly reaching the capacity of the Kilbarry landfill, while Waterford county is reaching capacity at Tramore. There are also pressing capacity constraints at dumps in Wexford and south Tipperary.
In the south, Cork city and county have a joint waste management plan which initially involved a transfer station in the Cork Corporation area and a landfill in the county area, at Bottlehill. However, the City Council failed to approve plans for the station. While a spokesman for the authority said last week the waste would still be going to the county area, a spokeswoman for the county expressed some surprise.
In Co Clare, a problem arose when Doora landfill was forced to close. Development of a new landfill at Inagh is under way, but for now waste has to be transferred to Limerick and north Tipperary.
In Galway city, the high cost of transferring waste to Ballinasloe landfill, about 50 miles away, has helped to spur the recycling infrastructure. Ballinasloe landfill is, however, the sole disposal point.