Cullen tries to find home for recycled waste [article]

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New markets for recycled waste to be sought
Liam Reid




The Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, has announced an initiative to try to find new markets for Ireland's growing volume of recycled waste material.

Announcing details of a new recycling market development group, Mr Cullen said new markets were needed in order to keep up with the growing volume of waste being recycled in Ireland, which is standing at 21 per cent in some parts of the country.

The most recent Environmental Protection Agency national waste database report highlighted the fact that thousands of tonnes of recyclable material was still being sent to landfill in 2001, including nearly 700,000 tonnes of paper, he said.

"As an example, it takes just 25 plastic drink bottles to make one fleece jacket. 176,000 fleece jackets could have been made from the amount of plastic sent to Irish landfills in 2001. Rather than landfill, we need to find further markets that offer an alternative. I am confident that the market development group can do that."

In 2001, 166,305 tonnes of paper was recovered in Ireland, which the Department of the Environment said was the equivalent of 225,000 average sized cars. According to the Department, the production of recycled paper reduces energy and water consumption by up to 70 per cent, compared with the production of virgin paper.

Mr Cullen said he had asked the new market development group, headed by economic consultant, Ms Margaret Daly, to concentrate initially on projects that could realise positive results in the short term.

The problems for identifying markets for Irish recycled waste was highlighted recently when thousands of tonnes of mixed Irish waste was seized by officials in Holland and Belgium last year and earlier this year. It had been incorrectly labelled as clean material and did not have the required paper work. The export of such mixed waste is effectively prohibited under a number of European laws and international agreements. The containers of mixed waste were destined for India and the Far East, where it was to be separated, with the paper being extracted for recycling.

However, Dutch and Belgian authorities returned the waste to Ireland, and investigations by local authorities are ongoing.

Waste firms receive a subsidy of up to 60 per tonne through the State recycling scheme operated by Repak. Currently the market within the Republic of Ireland for recycled waste of all types is extremely limited, with a small number of paper mills and plastics companies accepting such waste. As a result much of it is exported to the North and Britain.

Waste paper markets, centred on a small number of brokers in Belgium and Holland, can be very volatile, with prices for waste paper highly dependent on markets in the Far East.



© The Irish Times (Monday 5 July)