Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail)

If this scheme is successful it will be rolled out to other counties. It is planned to provide the service free to farmers due to the backlog of plastic waste. A charge of €50 will be levied for each lift and this will be the average cost for farmers. I spoke recently to the environmental officer in Galway County Council and she told me there will be smaller collections at recycling centres for smaller producers.

We have got off to a good start. It was a very successful scheme in the past but perhaps it was a victim of its own success. Now that the scheme has been reinstated we can build on it and provide it in all counties. It shows that this scheme and the Government waste management scheme is working. We are turning away from being a throw-away society and our recycling rates are increasing rapidly. We are putting modern, environmentally safe methods in place for the final disposal of non-recyclable materials. This is most welcome.

The Government is making a major effort to stop the illegal dumping we know has been taking place. If we invest in putting the infrastructure in place we will be able to make further progress. In 1998, we were recycling only 9% of waste. The Minister of State indicated that by 2004 this had climbed to 33%, which is higher than the UK and approaching the European Union average. We have now almost reached our national target of 35% of municipal waste recycling and we will reach it by the year 2013. We have been most successful in our packaging waste recovery rate. We exceed the EU average in this area. Commercial premises are now obliged to segregate at source and present certain specified packaging waste materials for recovery, leading to an effective ban on putting these materials in landfill.

The majority of households now have separate bin collections for recyclables. There is a strong push by my local authority in Galway to have the extra brown bin put in place for the collection of organic household waste. The environmental officer in Galway County Council has visited many towns and villages in the county where she has talked about the benefits of composting and using wormeries. Many schools now have wormeries for dealing with waste, which is a positive approach. Many local authorities have begun to move to a pay-by-weight or pay-by-use system which rewards those who recycle more. That is a positive move from the local authority.

We are one of only two European Union member states to fully implement the European directive on electronic waste on time. Many good things are happening here, such as the green flag initiative. I attended a school recently which was the 25th in County Galway to be awarded a green flag. That is very positive.

Progress has been made on waste reduction and prevention. The Race Against Waste advertising campaign is ongoing on television and radio and it has been very effective because it has increased our awareness of how we can reduce waste at home and in the workplace. The national strategy on biodegradable waste was published last month. It is a major policy document, which sets out the measures by which Ireland will achieve 80% diversion of such waste from landfill by 2016, which amounts to 1.8 million tonnes a year currently. For the first time, we have a national waste strategy in which targets have been set for waste prevention and minimisation. Recycling by way of organic treatment is also a major component of the plan.

All waste cannot be recycled and environmentally progressive countries in the EU rely on thermal treatment to convert waste to energy. This is an emotive issue, as evidenced when it was raised at a recent meeting of Galway City Council. We need to discuss further how we will approach such treatment. Earlier I received an e-mail from Friends of the Earth. When I printed the attachment, it ran to 78 pages because, unfortunately, the document only printed on one side of the page. When I receive the Whip from Senator Moylan, at least he prints it on both sides of the page. However, this is a large document, which I have not read yet. It takes the point made by Friends of the Earth that waste incineration must be examined again.