International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

company linked to the municipality (or a group thereof), or a time limited monopoly to
a waste contractor for household waste collection, following a competitive tendering
process. This process should, where the procurement process is managed effectively,
allow the collecting organization to achieve ‘economies of density’ in their logistics
through increasing the number of pick-ups which are undertaken across a given area.
This should, in turn, allow for reductions in cost for a given level of service.
Other key issues in Ireland relate to the overall funding structure for household waste
collection. In Ireland, whilst local authorities receive some funding support (for
example, through the Environmental Fund), the service is funded increasingly through
direct charges on users, usually a combination of a fixed and variable rate. Evidently,
whilst local authorities may use their powers to require those holding collection
permits to provide a given standard of service, they cannot control the price charged
for such services.
6.3 Key Policy Documents and their Contents
6.3.1 Changing Our Ways
The primary purpose of the Policy Statement, Changing Our Ways, was to provide a
national framework within which local authorities and the waste industry could plan
ahead with confidence. 125 This was the first in a series of government policy
documents on the management of waste in Ireland. It endorsed an ‘integrated waste
management approach’, based around the waste hierarchy as it was then
understood, with the following order of preference:
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� Prevention,
� Minimisation,
� Reuse
� Recycling
� Energy recovery,
� Disposal.
While this document contains the key quantitative targets for Irish waste
management; to be achieved over a 15-year period (i.e. to 2013), with the exception
of the second target (diversion of BMW from landfill, driven by the Landfill Directive),
there does not appear to be any supporting rationale or evidence provided to justify
the choice of these particular targets. The targets set out in Changing our Ways
appear to be inconsistent with the National Biodegradable Waste Strategy. In addition
no numeric assessment of growth rates, past or projected is provided. Changing Our
Ways is not prescriptive on residual waste treatment.
125 DoELG (1998) Waste Management: Changing our Ways, September 1998.
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes