Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour)
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Question 421: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the proportion of waste that goes unsegregated at source or collection; the proportion which is collected by private and public operators; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26951/11]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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The most recent data published by the Environmental Protection Agency in its National Waste Report 2009, copies of which are available on the Agency's website at www.epa.ie , indicates that the annual total of 1,498,469 tonnes of managed household waste was comprised as follows:

Mixed residual (black bin) 56%

Mixed dry recyclables (green bin) 18%

Mixed organics (brown bin and home compost) 7%

Bring banks, civic amenity sites, retail WEEE 19%

As the 2009 report notes, data concerning the different rates of segregation of household waste collected from the kerbside by private and public sector collectors must be treated with a degree of caution as local authority waste collectors tended to operate in large urban centres to a greater degree than their private sector counterparts. The 457,137 tonnes of household waste collected from the kerbside by local authorities in 2009 comprised 307,185 tonnes of residual waste, 108,189 tonnes of dry recyclables and 41,763 tonnes of organics. The comparable breakdown of the 688,350 tonnes of household waste collected by the private sector from the kerbside indicates that it was comprised of 509,530 tonnes of residual waste, 158,135 tonnes of dry recyclables and 20,685 tonnes of organics.

Table F-5 of the 2009 Report provides details of a survey of the character and composition of commercial waste, which, after household waste, is the next largest component of municipal waste.

Recently concluded public consultation processes concerning, respectively, a new national waste policy and the introduction of competitive tendering for household waste collection are of relevance to the issue of segregated collections of waste. The responses to the public consultation processes are being examined and I intend to bring policy proposals to Government before the end of the year.