Blog
Illegal dumping – RTE reveals illegal dump sites
Yesterday the RTE Investigates team (Karrie Kehoe and Conor Ryan) revealed what is already a commonly known fact. Our Councils and the EPA are simply not policing our Waste regulations to the level required. Illegal dumping is pervasive. Illegal dumping – the revelations. The RTE programme ‘Ireland’s Wild Waste Programme’ makes for stark viewing. There appears…
Cooling the fires – Incineration subsidies to be phased out in the EU
EU Member States to phase-out subsidies for incineration. @Europarl_EN & @EUCouncil bring #RenewableEnergy more in line with #CircularEconomy Blow for burners : Incineration industry subsidies are set to go. These revised provisions will bring the Circular Economy more into the fore of policy implementation, taking subsidies away from non-favoured practices. Latest EU Policy : Member…
EPA warning on 2020 climate targets : Action needed
EPA climate pollution data – the trend is going the wrong way. The latest climate warning, backed by data, from the EPA says in no uncertain terms that Ireland will miss its 2020 climate pollution target by 19 percentage points. This is the cumulative impact of over 20 years of lip service but inaction from successive…
Have You Reached the Last Straw Yet?
Are we reaching the Last Straw? There are 8,500,000,000 reasons why. The long-suffering, captive Irish consumer has had enough of plastic waste! We’re at the last straw, figuratively and maybe in reality too. Plastic Waste We’ve reached # the Last Straw. How timely then, that despite all our urging in the past to eliminate needless…
Brexit Waste Cross Border Impacts
Brexit will bring some unique challenges to the Irish Republic. But maybe, in all the political hype, we’re overlooking a very very obvious impact that we deal with every day unconsciously – Waste movements, Brexit Waste movements to be precise. By waste movements, we mean the cross-border transfers of Waste Materials in bulk that happens…
Incinerator permission – a Toxic Decision
Today the clouds were in the early morning sky for the first time in 4 days. They brought more than a welcome shade, however. As I listened to the early radio news, my day was shocked into disbelief by a Toxic Decision. After 17 years of refusals, by three inspectors reports and over 30,000 objections, An…
Waking up from our coffee cup nightmare
The UK starts to wake up from a coffee cup nightmare, but we’re still snoring here. Ring ring…..alarm bell ringing….wake up. Don’t press the snooze button. Just get up and smell the coffee. Isn’t it great to see that the UK’s Environmental Audit Committee, the EAC, have released a report recommending that a 25p levy…
Platin Cement Burner- Skyfill is a bad idea.
PLATIN: We’re concerned that this project will stop us recycling Phosphorus and Nitrogen are needed to grow food, not burn as Fuel for Cement kilns. Zero Waste Alliance Ireland (ZWAI) are very concerned at the use of recyclable materials as Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF). We know that this is a dangerous manner of turning Landfill…
Green Bin Rules – are we unpaid recycling workers?
Are we working as unpaid staff for the recycling companies? It might seem like that when you read the revised green bin collection guidelines given by the Co Councils for household waste recycling. We must sort, separate, loosen, wash, clean and dry our materials before they go in the green bin. That’s hard work and we still have…
EU Waste Directive – Ambition needed
OPEN LETTER TO MINISTER NAUGHTON. To the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment Re: Final steps for more ambitious EU waste legislation – your help is needed Dear Minister Naughton, The 2018 Climate Change Performance Index highlights Ireland as being the worst performing country in Europe for action on climate change. (https://www.climate-change-performance-index.org/). The Index…
Zero Waste Lifestyle –What Does It Mean?
The Zero Waste lifestyle is becoming a more popular phrase But what does it really mean. It’s far more than just recycling your disposable plastic bottle. The Zero Waste lifestyle is about sending nothing to landfill or thermal treatment (aka Incineration). This does not mean that we do more recycling. In fact, the opposite happens. We…
Dirty Water : Wastewater treatment opportunity.
The recent EPA report on the Quality of our Wastewater treatment in 2016 highlights that there’s a lot to be done. The EPA 2016 Wastewater Report’s Summary findings are stark. It’s embarrassing to contemplate! But challenges need to be faced and very soon. Here’s a very brief summary of the top 5 urgent issues. It is…
