KENNY WELCOMES MEETING OF EU DIRECTIVE TARGETS - NEED TO ALSO MEET END OF LIFE VEHICLE DIRECTIVE TARGETS HIGHLIGHTED

Posted on March 1, 2012 12:25 PM   |   Permanent Link   

Dublin North East Labour TD and member of the Oireachtas Committee on the Environment, Seán Kenny, has welcomed the announcement that Ireland is well advanced in achieving most of the EU waste recovery and recycling targets, with the exception of end of life vehicle targets, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) National Waste Report 2010, released today.

"Municipal waste generation fell by 3.6 per cent compared to 2009. The economic downturn is continuing to have a marked influence on waste generation, particularly in the commercial waste and construction & demolition waste streams. When the economy begins to improve, it is important that we decouple waste generation from economic growth.

"Ireland is also making good progress towards achieving its EU targets in areas such as packaging waste, waste electrical goods and batteries. Use of waste as an energy fuel grew by 20 per cent from 2009 figures to 183,000 tonnes in 2010. While Ireland has met its 2010 target for the diversion of biodegradable waste from landfill, the more stringent EU targets coming into effect in 2013 and 2016 under the Landfill Directive will be much harder to achieve and will require continued investment in the infrastructure needed to treat biodegradable waste.

"Despite that, I was concerned to read that Ireland is failing to meet the End of Life Vehicle Directive targets for reuse, recovery and recycling of vehicles and their components. Action needs to be undertaken to improve the reuse, recovery and recycling rates for End of Life Vehicles to ensure that Ireland complies with the relevant EU targets. Meeting this directive would mean that there would be less disused motor vehicles lying around, which in turn would lead to a reduction in environmental damage caused by rusting hulks sitting on the ground. Recycling components would lead to less use of fresh natural resources and continued use of natural resources that have already had use made of them. If we can do this for plastic and other items we should be able to work up the point where we can recycle more complex items such as motor vehicles and their components."