Waste in Dublin

Ireland, like the best waste management performers in Europe, is moving away from a heavy reliance on landfill and has established a waste management hierarchy that emphasises Reduction, Reuse and Recycling (3 Rs). The Dublin Regional Waste Management Plan has led the field in implementing this strategy by establishing three key targets for waste management in the Dublin region:

Targets for Dublin:

  • Recycling 59%
  • Thermal Treatment 25%
  • Landfill 16%

Targets for Dublin

The plan has also provided an integrated package of measures to meet these objectives including waste minimisation initiatives, improved recycling, recovery and disposal facilities and innovative technologies to maximise energy recovery while safeguarding the environment and limiting climate change impact.

Increased recycling

The Dublin Regional Waste Management Plan wants recycling to soar to 59%. As a result of a number of improved facilities, increased awareness and incentive schemes, over 527,000 tonnes of materials arising from households in the Dublin region were recycled in 2006 representing a 40% recycling rate and a marked improvement on the 7% recycling rate in 1997. Check out www.dublinwaste.ie for the latest news, facilities and recycling tips.

According to Eurostat data from 2005, the countries with the highest recycling rates are also the ones with the highest thermal treatment rates.

Treatment of Municipal Waste in Europe 2005

Thermal Treatment

The Dublin Regional Waste Management plan set a target of 25% thermal treatment of waste which cannot be sensibly recycled as part of a strategy to ensure the most cost effective, environmentally friendly and efficient solution.

Modern waste to energy technology is a safe and proven technology widely used throughout Europe. It is wholly compatible with a strong recycling ethos and infrastructure, and has the added benefit of producing a green source of electricity by recovering energy from rubbish which can be fed into the national grid, while also providing hot water for district heating.

The Dublin Waste to Energy plant has been designed to provide highly efficient incineration and can be classified as recovery in line with the new criteria outlined in the revised 1975 EU Waste Framework Directive. The Directive will mean that highly efficient incineration will in future be classed as 'recovery' rather than 'disposal' provided it meets stringent energy efficiency criteria. The criteria, in effect, requires waste to energy plants to operate at a minimum of 65% efficiency.

The Dublin plant will treat up to 600,000 tonnes of waste annually providing electricity for up to 50,000 homes and district heating for up to a further 60,000 homes. The plant will achieve greater than 65% on electricity as defined in the EU directive and will achieve even more than this when district heating is incorporated.

Did you know? Every tonne of waste treated at the Dublin plant will provide as much energy as one 200 litre barrel of oil. Over the period of a year the plant could avoid the need to import 600,000 barrels of oil.

Landfill reduction

Before the Waste Management Plan for the Dublin region was introduced over 90% of waste was disposed of in landfill. While waste prevention and recycling initiatives have improved dramatically, Dublin still has a long way to go to meet the 16% landfill target outlined in the Dublin Regional Waste Management Plan and the legal requirements of the European Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC) to reduce national levels of biodegradable waste sent to landfill to 75% of 2005 levels by 2010.

Did you know? Waste to energy technology significantly reduces the volume of waste. During the lifetime of the Dublin plant, at least 200 acres of land (5 times the size of the RDS) will be saved from being used as landfill. The waste to energy facility could also help save money as failure to meet the 75% EU landfill reduction target could result in financial penalties being imposed on Ireland amounting to €200,000 to €400,000 per day.