With tiphead waste mountains rising to visibly embarrassing heights in several counties of the south-east, a serious search has begun for ways to address the problem on a regional basis.
A Regional Strategy Study, started last week, will be completed in six months and will set out the options for a co-ordinated plan of action on waste management for the south-east during the next 20 years.
The regional authority, whose member-bodies are the city and county councils of Carlow, Kilkenny, Tipperary South Riding, Waterford and Wexford, has appointed consultants to carry out the study and has invited submissions from all levels of the communities concerned.
The study will first define the problem in the five counties. The total area involved is about 9,400 square kilometres and contains almost 400,000 people. At present it produces over 200,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste a year.
A detailed inventory of this
waste burden will be prepared, and the broad-ranging study will examine all aspects of managing it - prevention, minimisation, re-use, processing, recycling, collection, storage, transport and so on. It will also analyse the economics of the various options.
When it reports, the local authorities involved will be faced with hard decisions as they attempt to integrate their waste-management policies and practice. Some of the solutions proposed will undoubtedly involve trans-boundary elements; there may have to be transfer station for waste storage, and some counties may have to accept a role as hosts for waste.
If the regional approach is to be implemented the regional authority and central government will have to act, effectively, as "cross-border bodies with executive powers". It is at that point that the political will for incisive decision-making will be tested against purely local interests and jealously-guarded local autonomy.
The urgency of the problem, however, makes firm action imperative. Mr Eamon Timoney, a director of the consultants, Fehily, Timoney, Weston, who are working in association with John B. Barry and Partners, points out that most of the councils in the region have only from three to five years' use left in their existing landfill sites.
Because this study is aimed at devising a medium- to long-term strategy, he adds, the local authorities have had to proceed in the meantime with the short-term plans.
The problem is already evident at the landfill sites at Kilbarry, in Waterford city, and in Tramore, which are almost at capacity, and these are fairly typical of such sites throughout the region.
On the optimistic side, some new technologies are coming on stream in regard to landfill operations and advanced MRFs (materials recycling facilities). But if an effective strategy is to emerge, more individual responsibility, extra effort and some pain will have to be borne by all levels in society, which is why the element of public consultation is being stressed in this vital new strategy study.
A consultative forum is to be set up, representing a wide cross-section of the community, and any organisation or individual can apply for representation on it by writing to Fehily, Timoney, Weston at Centre Park House, Centre Park Road, Cork.