Ciarán Cannon (Progressive Democrats)

I support every aspect of Senator Boyle's well-worded arguments against the concept of incineration. If we as a nation are ambitious, which we should be and I believe we are, in reducing and minimising our waste, I cannot understand how alongside that ambition we are also proposing to use the concept of incineration. It, by its nature, needs massive amounts of waste to remain viable. I fail to understand how those two ambitions are compatible, and that is all I will say on that issue.

I wish to dwell on one aspect of our waste management problem, namely, superfluous packaging, which was addressed by a number of Senators this morning. The kernel of this problem lies with the fact that industry nationally and worldwide is allowed to have the word "disposable" in its dictionary. The word "disposal" comes into direct conflict with the word "sustainable". As long as society and industry insist on clinging to this trend of throwaway objects, we will have a waste management problem on our hands for many generations to come. If we ask our parents, or grandparents — those of us who are fortunate to still have them — about this issue, they will tell us they did not use the word "disposable" before the 1950s.

It is interesting that nature has been designing its own waste disposal solutions for millions of years. If one looks at the tree outside one's window, one will note it disposes of its leaves in the autumn. In the human world, this would be considered waste and they would be raked up, bagged and sent to a landfill. However, that is not so with nature, the soil simply breaks down the leaves, which provide a once yearly feeding for the plants.

This principle needs to be applied to all processes throughout industry, agriculture and the home. Most packaging, which makes up about 50% of our waste stream, should be composed, as far as possible, of organic material. In this way, a discarded wrapper would not become litter and as it composts it would become soil. There is no need for shampoo bottles, drinks cans and equipment packaging to last centuries longer than its contents.

Industry needs to address the issue of lifecycle in all its products. For instance, an electronics company in Japan has produced what is known as the first immortal television. Rather than selling the product, it is leased to the customer on a lifetime basis and covered by a warranty by the manufacturer. As the manufacturer owns the television, it is made up of sturdy and durable materials that are used in the making of the product. The fewer parts it has to replace, the more money the company makes. Similarly, a number of years ago, Xerox developed the first ever recyclable photocopier, which it called the zero landfill photocopier. This machine was developed to be long lasting and highly repairable and at the end of its lifecycle it is collected by Xerox and returned to its factory where it is dismantled into its component parts and rebuilt into another machine which can be resold as a brand new product. These are examples of efficiency and the kinds of products we should strive to ensure are used across all industry.

Waste management in Ireland is not solely the responsibility of local authorities or the Government, it is also that of the waste producer. Industry, has only begun to recognise its responsibility in this respect. It is helping by subscribing to a packaging reduction scheme, Repak, which recovers packaging materials for reuse.

As an island nation, it has become evident with accelerated awareness that the amount of land we are willing to devote to storing piles of rubbish is limited. An average of 400 kg of waste per year is produced by each individual, which amounts to a total of 44 million tonnes of waste every year. We should not store rubbish as it leaks down into the water-table and contaminates our drinking water. Furthermore, it smells, attracts vermin and rots for 100 years by which time parts of it will still not be broken down, even on a geological time scale. The position could appear to be hopeless, but it is important that we as a Government encourage people to exercise their consumer powers as householders and as employees or employers. We must start to encourage people to refuse to purchase overpackaged goods. We must ask people to vote with their money and manufacturers will soon get the message.

I strongly support the point made by Senator Quinn on the Order of Business and reiterated by Senators Norris and Buttimer. We should be ashamed of the superfluous and unnecessary paper we generate in this House every day. I doubt if there is any Member who does not have access to email facilities. Every item of correspondence that emanates from our offices should be sent, by default, via email. If any Member still requires hard copies, he or she could make a special request for them. I spent two years in Galway County Council asking the secretariat to issue meeting agendas and minutes via email and finally it has happened. Some members now bring the agendas to the meetings on their laptops, thus negating the need to print them out at any point. Why can this not be done here? We are an important and relevant arm of Government and we should set the example.