Mr. James Fitzgerald:

Amber waste is considered hazardous waste. I do not know the context but amber waste is significantly more difficult to export. First, a bond of about €5,000 per load is required. For example, I could have a bond of €20,000 in place for four loads of plastic to be in play at any one time in my yard. Once the first load was recycled, I could then ship the fifth load. It significantly restricts our movement of and trade in plastic. The amber designation also created difficulties with the loading of plastic at yards. For example, if a lorry could not come on a certain day, the load had to be abandoned and permission has to be obtained for another load two days later. This is causing extreme difficulty here for those shipping plastics.

It also created an even bigger difficulty with regard to the yards to which farm plastics could be exported. Amber waste cannot be exported to a green facility, which cuts out most of the facilities. There are only three amber facilities we know of, namely, one in the Netherlands and two in Great Britain. Our markets on the Continent could not take this waste because amber waste cannot be shipped to a green facility. That is the case even though Irish farm plastic, and farm plastic Europe-wide, is classified as green waste. This aspect is managed by the National TransFrontier Shipment Office, and its view was based on the fact that there would be commingling of hazardous materials. Grit, soil and organic matter are not hazardous materials. We import and export cattle and other livestock, for example, and that activity involves bedding and all sorts of issues. There is no greater difficulty to the country in that regard than with farm plastics, but that is the perception in the National TransFrontier Shipment Office.

Deputy Fitzmaurice also mentioned the trammelling machine. The National TransFrontier Shipment Office has indicated that farm plastics may be trammelled, a process that involves putting the material through a big screen and screening it out.

However the volume of material one gets out of a trammel is less than 5%. It is really dust, some sand, stone and little things like that. It is a costly procedure to put the material through a trammel and to export it as green waste. That is the first element of it. It does not add any value. The current recyclers for farm plastics are quite well prepared to accept untrammelled plastic, which is what they have done for years, in their recycling facilities in England, Wales, Scotland and in Holland. We think trammelling waste is a waste of time, to coin a phrase, to deal with that issue.

The Deputy mentioned the figures of €1.6 million to €2 million. Again, those are estimated figures. However, it was money that farmers paid. When one buys a roll of plastic, and it is 40 kg or 50 kg in a roll, it doubles its weight when one brings it back in for recyling because it is a hygroscopic material and retains water and it would have a certain amount of grit and dust in it. It doubles its weight naturally. That is one of the issues with it. We might put 16,000 tonnes of plastic on the market, but we will end up getting 25,000 tonnes to 30,000 tonnes of plastic back in as a result of that issue.

Deputy Fitzmaurice mentioned a plastics recycling facility. That is rather interesting, in that there have been a number of iterations of plastics recycling facilities in this country over the last ten or 15 years. Unfortunately, in many cases, it has been a graveyard for money. The recycling facilities failed commercially, but I am not privy to the reasons this might have happened. It would appear that, perhaps, lack of investment and engineering technology were letting people down. There was a great Bord na Móna facility in Littleton, County Tipperary. It is a super yard, ideal for the particular job. However, the process of handling farm plastics involves fairly robust machinery and, in many cases, the investment has not been appropriate or enough to get the machinery that would ensure that the facility would run. That is my view of it.