Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Question 520: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government his views on the use of under-sink waste disposal units, particularly for people who have concerns in relation to the roll out of the brown bins in the four Dublin county councils, including the smell of these bins after a week or so of kitchen waste and, for smaller housing units, the clutter resulting from the use of three separate bins; if he will encourage the use of under-sink waste disposal units; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10193/08]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Under Article 5 of Directive 1999/31/EC on the landfill of waste, each Member State of the European Union is required to prepare and oversee the implementation of a National Strategy on Biodegradable Waste which will set out measures progressively to divert biodegradable municipal waste away from landfill in accordance with specified targets over the period to 2016.

In April 2006, Ireland's National Strategy on Biodegradable Waste was published and set out a range of integrated measures designed to facilitate the achievement of these challenging diversion targets. The Strategy identifies the provision of segregated "brown bin" collections for biodegradable material as playing a key role in meeting EU and national targets for the diversion of such waste from landfill, as may, for example, be seen in Waterford. The Strategic Policy Research Unit of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently published a discussion paper Hitting the Targets for Biodegradable Municipal Waste: Ten Options for Change. This states that source separated collections, through a three bin system, affords the best opportunity completely to remove the organic fraction of biodegradable municipal waste from landfill by facilitating biological treatment, such as composting or anaerobic digestion. I understand that the roll out of segregated collections for biodegradable waste is progressing in the four Dublin local authority areas and that all householders in these areas in receipt of brown bin collections are being provided with advice on the correct use of brown bins.

In-sink macerator units, or food waste disposal units, are used in some household and commercial premises to dispose of organic kitchen waste to the sewer, thus removing the material from the normal solid waste stream and transferring it to the local wastewater treatment plant for treatment. The Strategy notes that this may have adverse consequences if a treatment plant has not been specifically designed to cater for such additional loads. A study into such units is currently being carried out under the Environmental Research Technological Development and Innovation Programme and the results will inform future policy. The study report will be published by the EPA later this year.