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

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figures include nappies, as is the case in Ireland, but our experience suggests
they would not. The general picture, however, is that there is very significant
potential for progress to be made in this area in Ireland, and that through
capturing around 50% of the non-nappy textiles, an additional 40,000 tonnes
or so of landfilled waste could be avoided; 1041
In the following scenario we have assumed that:
� Growth rates are as previously projected;
� The capture rate for paper and card increases to 60%;
� Textiles recycling / re-use rates increase to 15% of total (around 30% of nonnappy
textiles), in line with the National Biodegradable Waste Strategy; and
� Organic waste captures increase to 30% in 2010.
Other material captures are increased slightly from the previous scenario (reflecting,
as with paper and card, increased efforts to sort). The results from this scenario are
shown in Figure 56-2. The Scenario would require capacity for treatment of source
segregated organics to be of the order 250,000 tonnes, an increase of 170,000
tonnes or so from 2007.
A critical variable will be the change in gross quantities of MSW, and in particular, the
effect that the recession has had upon this. Even so, they highlight the fact that even
with these efforts, there would be 143,170 tonnes more BMW in residual waste than
could be landfilled. This is equivalent to the BMW contained in 208,000 tonnes of
residual MSW.
The treatment possibilities for this residual waste then become important. Here, there
appear to be four possibilities:
1. The residual waste is incinerated. There would appear to be only one
possibility in this respect by 2010. This is the Carranstown plant at Meath,
though it seems unlikely that this would be operating for the whole year, even
if it was operating for part thereof (and it might not be);
2. The residual waste is used in the preparation of SRF for export. This has been
happening for some years, with more that 30,000 tonnes exported to UK and
Sweden in 2007;
1041 It is far from clear to us why ‘textiles’ should be treated as 100% biodegradable for the purposes of
the Landfill Directive. There are many synthetic textiles available and the fact that Ireland’s
performance in respect of capturing textiles is relatively poor simply increases the magnitude of the
task ahead. Effectively, the approach overstates the quantity of biodegradable waste in the waste
stream, making it more difficult to meet a target in any given year. According to a recent life-cycle study
on nappies, 16.8% of the weight of nappies disposed is not biodegradable (ERM (2008) An Updated
Lifecycle Assessment Study for Disposable and Reusable Nappies, Report for WRAP and Defra,
Science Report SC010018/SR2, October 2008). In the UK, it is generally assumed that 50% by weight
of textiles are biodegradable, and whilst this may not be strictly accurate, it implies a pragmatic
approach to the issue that not all textiles are biodegradable. This matter is taken up below.
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes