Waste income expected to fall by €12,000 in 2011

CLARE County Council expects its income coming from the Central Waste Management Facility at Ballyduff Beg will decline by around €12,000 a week in 2011.

Levels of consumption are falling while levels of recycling are rising, the budget document states. “The market conditions for waste management nationally and locally have continued to be volatile in 2010. There has been a continuing decrease in volumes of waste deposited at the council’s waste management facilities in 2010, as a result of reduced activity in the commercial and industrial sector and significant competition for landfill. Total waste arising in the county is down approximately 20%. There has also been an increase in the household recycling rate with up to 55% of municipal waste now being recycled.”
There is a lot of recycling in Clare according to the document, with the overall household recycling rate standing at 38%, up 5% on last year.
A number of factors are combining to reduce the level of income from Ballyduff Beg. “The waste diversion targets have had an ongoing impact on the tonnage of waste deposited at the Central Waste Management Facility at Ballyduff Beg. In addition, the significant reductions in the gate fees for landfill across the country have continued. Accordingly, the income estimate from the Central Waste Management facility at Ballyduff Beg has been reduced from €2.1 million in 2010 to €1.5m in 2011.”
It was noted that the further development of the landfill has been suspended indefinitely.
Work is still continuing on the remediation of a number of landfills in Clare. “Clare has eight closed landfills. One site, Whitegate is in the high-risk category, Kilrush and Ennistymon are in the medium class and five smaller landfills are in the low class. As a result of work carried out in 2009, it is expected that Whitegate will be reassessed as a medium to low risk category. Further progress has been made on this item in 2010 with Kilrush landfill having a risk assessment undertaken,” according to the budget document.