John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I have had no direct contact with Dublin City Council on the proposed levies. I am aware many local authorities have called for the introduction of landfill levies, as have many people in the industry. It is through the introduction of these levies that we will ensure we get increased rates of recycling. The levies are also a stimulus to the MBT industry. Those in the composting industry, in particular, have called on me to introduce these levies, which make sense because they change behaviour. We must remember when talking about the implementation of the landfill directive, that we are talking about the biodegradable fraction of waste, which when it decomposes causes difficulties such as methane emissions. I had the pleasure recently of turning the sod at an MBT plant in Meath which will deal with over 200,000 tonnes of waste. This is the way to go. We want to increase recycling rates up to 70%. This target is part of the international review we commissioned, which was very clear that if we want to change waste management structure and behaviour, we must introduce levies.

The new food regulations which will come into play at the end of June will make a big difference and will mean that how we treat food waste from our restaurants and hotels, which currently goes to landfill where it causes difficulties, will change. If current practice continued, it would be difficult to meet the landfill directive requirements. This change will encourage those in the MBT and composting industries. This is the direction we want to take to get away from reliance on landfill and large scale incineration.

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