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

them worthy of consideration, and that conventional ‘brown bin’ schemes, collecting
both garden and food waste, might have some drawbacks. This is especially true
where the issue of home composting, and maintaining activity in this respect, is
concerned, and where the intention is to seek to sensitise households to the issues of
food wastage (although clearly other possibilities for this exist). 628
33.7.2 Environmental Benefits Associated with Recycling
The effects of the Circular in terms of recycling will allow Ireland to pursue its
recycling rates for food and garden waste. In 2006, 64,725 tonnes of organic (food
and garden) waste was recycled. This comprised 40,539 tonnes of garden and park
waste, 14,806 tonnes of biodegradable kitchen and canteen waste (of which 7,888
tonnes was commercial and 6,918 tonnes was household waste) and 9,381 tonnes
of cooking oil. The majority of this organic waste was composted. 629 In 2007, the
quantity of organic municipal waste recovered had increased to 78,617 tonnes, but
the quantity collected from households fell in the year from 23,708 tonnes to 19,611
tonnes. 630 A feature of organic collections which focus on garden waste is that their
apparent success or failure is, of course, partly determined by the weather, so that
year to year fluctuations are to be expected.
Benefits are likely to be maximised where collection systems target food waste, and
where the collected organic waste is treated through anaerobic digestion (and
composting) rather than through composting alone. This latter message – regarding
the superiority of anaerobic digestion from the perspective of treatment - is almost
universally voiced by those who have conducted comparative assessments, including
ourselves. 631 The possibilities for doing this, and the efficiency with which capital
628 Eunomia (2007) Managing Biowastes from Households in the UK: Applying Life-cycle Thinking in
the Framework of Cost-benefit Analysis, Banbury, Oxon: WRAP to be published in 2007.
629 EPA (2008) National Waste Report 2006, Wexford: EPA
630 EPA (2009) National Waste Report 2007, Wexford: EPA
631 See, for example, Werner Edelmann and Konrad Schleiss (1999) Ecologic, Energetic and Economic
Comparison of Treating Biogenic Wastes by Digesting, Composting or Incinerating, Paper written for
R99, Geneva, Switzerland; Konrad Schleiss (1999) Grüngutbewirtschaftung im Kanton Zürich aus
betriebswirtschlaftlicher und ökologischer Sicht: Situationsanalyse, Szenarioanalyse, ökonomische
und ökologische Bewertung sowie Synthese mit MAUT, Dissertation ETH No 13,746, 1999; W.
Edelmann and K. Schleiss (1999) Ökologischer, energetischer und ökonomischer Vergleich Vergärung,
Kompostierung und Verbrennung fester biogener Abfallstoffe, Final report for BFE/BUWAL, BFE, CH-
3003 Bern; and W. Edelmann and K. Schleiss (2002) Products, Impacts and Economy of Anaerobic
Digestion of OFMSW, in in J. Mata-Alvarez (ed) (2003) Biomethanization of the Organic Fraction of
Municipal Solid Waste, London: IWA Publishing, pp. 265-301; R. Vogt, F. Knappe, J. Giegrich and A.
Detzel (2002) Okobilanz Bioabfallverwertung Untershung zur Umweltvertraglichkeit von Systemen zur
Verwertung von biologisch-organischen Abfallen. Initiativen zum Umweltschutz 52, Berlin; Regine Vogt,
Florian Knappe and Andreas Detzel (2001) Environmental Evaluation of Systems for the Recovery of
Biogenic Waste, Proceedings from the ORBIT 2001 Conference; F. Knappe, R. Vogt and B. Franke
(2004) Biowaste Management from an Ecological Perspective, in P. Lens, B. Hamelers, H. Hoitink and
W. Bidlingmaier (2004) (eds.) Resource Recovery and Reuse in Organic Solid Waste Management,
London: IWA Publishing, pp. 71-9; D. Hogg et al (2002) Economic Assessment of Options for Dealing
with Biodegradable Waste, Report to DG Environment, European Commission, by Eunomia, Scuola
Agraria del Parco di Monza, HDRA Consultants, ZREU and LDK; J-O Sundqvist et al (2002) Hur Skall
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