Ireland is now generating 313,000 tonnes of hazardous waste a year, and this figure is projected to increase by 47 per cent over the next eight years unless preventive action is taken, according to a strategy study commissioned by the Environmental Protection Agency.
It found that more than 96,000 tonnes of hazardous waste arising each year goes unreported. The largest single category, accounting for 28,000 tonnes, is sheep dip containing harmful organophosphates.
Other unreported categories include waste oil (17,500 tonnes); household hazardous waste, such as used batteries and prescription drugs (8,500 tonnes); paint packaging waste (6,500 tonnes); and other agricultural waste deemed to be hazardous (4,100 tonnes).
Among reported hazardous waste, organic and chlorinated solvents - mainly originating in the chemical/pharmaceutical sector - amount to 86,400 tonnes (40 per cent of the total), with other pharmaceutical waste accounting for a further 49,500 tonnes (23 per cent).
The study, by Tobin Environmental Services, is currently in draft form. Its findings were presented yesterday at a consultative conference in Dublin and will now be considered by the EPA, which is to publish a national hazardous waste management plan next year.
It notes that there are eight hazardous-waste recovery and disposal facilities in Ireland, including five on-site incinerators, all operated by companies with IPC (integrated pollution control) licences from the EPA. A sixth incinerator is to start operating shortly.
Although the Republic has an indefinite exemption from the EU allowing for the export of high-risk waste requiring incineration, this is unlikely to last for ever. At present 18,880 tonnes are exported for incineration, mainly in Britain.
"Ireland is highly dependent on disposal facilities abroad, which is a potentially vulnerable situation," the study says. "Should foreign countries decide to close their borders to Irish hazardous waste, which in principle they may do, Ireland would face a difficult situation."
The Irish and Dutch engineers who carried out the study say the volume of hazardous waste arising here annually would not be sufficient to make a national incinerator viable. But they recommend that a more detailed feasibility study should be undertaken in the short term.
They conclude that, with economic growth and improved collection facilities, an incinerator could become more viable. But it would have to be accompanied by a ban covering the import of hazardous waste for incineration and the export of Irish waste to other countries.
The study also deals with the potentially costly issue of "remediating" sites which have been used in the past to dispose of hazardous waste.
It recommends that local authorities identify each site and place it on a register which would indicate the types of waste likely to have been deposited. A priority programme would then be drawn up to remediate the sites and prevent environmental pollution.
Regarding hazardous waste, the study proposes that the EPA use its licensing system to achieve an annual reduction of at least 10 per cent by 2006. The volume might also be reduced by providing financial incentives to encourage cleaner production.
It also estimates that a collection system, including farms and households, would cost £7 million to set up and £5.8 million a year to operate. An incinerator could cost as much as £17.5 million, compared to £1 million for special hazardous waste "cells" in landfill sites.
