Ireland's capital will export its garbage because it's running out of landfill space and a new incinerator faces years of procedural delays, according to the Dublin City Council's senior waste management official.
DUBLIN, Ireland — Ireland's capital will export its garbage because it's running out of landfill space and a new incinerator faces years of procedural delays, according to the Dublin City Council's senior waste management official.
"In December 2007 all the landfills in the Dublin region will be closed, so what do we do with the waste after that? Clearly we will have to look outside the region," said Matt Twomey, assistant city manager in charge of waste management.
Dublin, home to nearly a third of Ireland's 4 million residents, has graphic problems with waste.
Its streets are heavily littered, particularly with cigarette butts and gum, while its main sewage works regularly stinks up parts of south Dublin with sludge left sitting in the open air. Corrupt makers and handlers of waste have been convicted of dumping refuse illegally in fields to cut their costs. The city council has opened several recycling centers, but they're closed on weekends and their bins are often overflowing.
Twomey said Dublin garbage collection depended on opening a new dump in the northern suburbs and on building a new incinerator near the sewage plant. But both projects face several years of regulatory hurdles, including from Ireland's planning board and Environmental Protection Agency, as well as possible legal challenges from city councilors opposed to both projects being located near their constituents.
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He forecast that the new dump wouldn't open until 2009, the incinerator until 2010. Until then, he said, this meant Dublin would increasingly ship its garbage to other parts of Ireland and other countries.
Source: Associated Press
