The Government has launched a graphic advertising campaign which dramatises the consequences of the waste crisis facing the country being ignored.
One of the advertisements, which will be broadcast for the first time this evening, features a child surrounded by rats and a mountain of waste.
RTÉ has decided that it may only be broadcast after the 9 p.m. watershed because of the strong images it contains.
A spokesman for the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, said the "Race Against Waste" advertising campaign needed to be shocking to convey the urgency of the country's waste problem.
"The adverts are deliberately shocking because it's time to bring the message to the people that the scale of the problem can no longer be ignored," said the spokesman.
The advert will be broadcast as the Government faces criticism from a large number of residents groups opposed to the construction of waste incinerators in various locations around the country.
In the advertisement, a voice-over by Hollywood actor, Mr Stuart Townsend, says "Ireland is running out of landfill sites" as a tidal wave of waste invades a suburban scene.
A child is visible among the waste, while rats crawl among the rubbish. It ends with the message that the tide of waste can only be halted if good recycling and waste-reduction habits are adopted.
The advert will be shown for the first time tonight and will be broadcast on RTÉ 1, Network 2, TV3, Sky, TG4 and E4. It will continue until the end of May 2004.
Minister Cullen's spokesman dismissed suggestions that the advert could be seen as excessive portrayal of Ireland's waste. He said the campaign would promote practical ways to reuse and recycle in later commercials.
"As part of the campaign, nationally and locally, we will demonstrate through simple initiatives how people in households and businesses can make their contribution to solving Ireland's waste problem," he said.
Minister Cullen has said the Government will place a new focus on waste prevention, much more recycling, thermal treatment with energy recovery from waste that cannot be recycled, and using landfill as a last resort for residual waste.
He has also stressed that new thermal-treatment facilities would be subject to environmental impact assessment, planning controls and licensing by the Environmental Protection Agency.
However, a report by the body this summer warned that the Government's target of 50 per cent recovery for recycling by 2005 remained challenging, particularly if quantities of packaging waste continued to increase.
