Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Question 586: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the technology developed by a company (details supplied) which allows efficient and profitable kerbside collection of waste through automatic sorting of recyclables and the benefits same would have in reducing landfill and the cost of sorting and allowing people without vehicles to access recycling. [24509/06]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Significant progress has been made in the promotion of recycling in recent years. The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) National Waste Report 2004 shows that 33.6% of municipal waste was recovered in that year, up from just 9% in 1998. The national recycling target of 35% by 2013 set in the Government policy document Changing Our Ways (1998) has almost been achieved. The growth in recycling is attributable to a number of factors including:

—the increase in the number of bring banks, which reached 1929 in 2004, up from 837 in 1998;

—the provision of more civic amenity sites, up to 69 from 30 in 1998; and

—segregated collection services being available to more households, up from 70,000 in 1998 to over 560,000 in 2003.

Responsibility for the procurement of waste management infrastructure, such as Materials Recovery Facilities, lies with local authorities. While I am not familiar with the company in Australia which is referred to in the Question, a greater degree of automation has become more commonplace in the operation of these facilities generally in recent years. Promoters of particular technologies who wish to compete for the provision of the waste management infrastructural requirements in Ireland may either seek to provide this infrastructure on an advanced basis — subject to the necessary planning/waste authorisations, or can effectively compete with other service providers for a contract from the local authorities and seek to provide them with waste treatment solutions.