Kilkenny needs to have firm national leadership to address growing concerns about the crisis in waste recycling, according to Labour Party councillor Michael O’Brien.
Cllr O’Brien, believes that recent carefully-crafted statements by the Minister for the Environment, John Gormley suggesting recyclable waste collected from households and industry is of too low quality for recovery is a red herring.
“Irish waste management operators were selling this material to markets as far away as China, a clear indication that recycled waste quality was fine. But no State contingency plan was created. Even though it was painfully obvious in the past year that a problem was emerging, no effort was made to develop a home grown recoverable industry that might deliver an Irish Paper Mill, or an alternative use for recoverable glass. All of this is bad news for Kilkenny because significant amounts of what was exported will now have to be accommodated in Kilkenny’s diminishing landfills.
“Recent statements from management of Kilkenny County Council, about future landfill needs does not reveal for how long – or if at all - government has been advising the council executive about this pending problem. Government cannot blame individual local authorities for this crisis because there is only room for a single, viable national recovery from recycled waste plant in Ireland,” Mr O’Brien said.
He stated that a 2006 study for the government found that the benefits of establishing a paper mill could include a stable domestic recycling capacity and new recycled products for the Irish market.
“Protection of the environment is paramount as is the urgent need to protect both public and private investment, expertise and employment in waste management in Kilkenny - but we need to have proper State leadership to achieve this.”
