Waste treatment and disposal in Ireland relies fundamentally on landfill, the least favoured method of waste disposal. As a society we produce too much waste, the vast bulk of which is spread or deposited on land. This is not desirable in any context. We have the highest dependency on landfill in the EU. In 1998 some 91% of our domestic waste went to landfill, which spells out the seriousness of this matter.