Local authorities seen to be "driving the environmental agenda" are to be rewarded with grants for recycling facilities from a fund financed by revenue from the plastic bag and landfill levies imposed last year.
Announcing a €55 million expenditure programme under the Environment Fund for this year, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, warned local authorities falling behind in this area "will go to the back of the queue". He said the record level of investment would produce more recycling facilities for communities, including "bring banks" and sites for depositing bulky items, so there could be "no more excuses" for not recycling more waste. The Environment Fund was established with the revenues from the 15 cent plastic bag levy and the landfill levy. The money will also be used for litter prevention programmes and waste awareness initiatives.
The Minister is making €35 million available in direct grant aid for waste recycling/recovery initiatives this year. The bulk of this - about €26 million - will go towards new or improved recycling facilities, while €5 million would subsidise operating costs.
About €4 million will be provided to meet local authority planning and procurement costs arising from regional waste management plans, in addition to a proposed expenditure of €20 million on a range of other waste and environmental measures.
These include establishing a waste prevention programme, a market development programme for recyclable materials, a recycling consultative forum, a new waste awareness campaign and better enforcement of environmental legislation.
"I made it clear from the outset that the provision of better waste management services and infrastructure is my top environmental priority, and that I would provide strong financial support to facilitate progress."
Calling on local authorities to "ramp-up" their efforts on recycling, Mr Cullen added that "unprecedented funds" were now available for environmental protection. He also claimed his initiatives would "transform the face of waste management in Ireland".
The Minister announced a second round of grant allocations totalling €8.35 million for 17 local authority recycling projects under an EU co-financed waste management programme. This brings to €22 million the funding allocated since last November.
The grants scheme is targeted at a range of facilities including "bring banks", civic amenity sites (for bulky household items), materials recovery facilities for "dry" recyclables, and biological treatment of "green" and organic household waste.
"These facilities are the basic building blocks of an integrated waste management infrastructure", the Minister said. "We must harness public goodwill and support for waste recycling and make it as easy as possible for the individual householder to make a contribution." Grants announced since last November will support the provision of about 580 new "bring bank" sites (compared to 1,400 sites currently), 25 new and five expanded civic amenity sites and nine composting facilities for organic waste.
Declaring that Ireland needed to reduce its current reliance on landfill and significantly improve recycling rates for recoverable materials, Mr Cullen said that he intended to provide further "significant funding" to incentivise provision of the necessary facilities.
