WYG Ireland, part of the WYG Group, has called on the government to provide the waste industry with leadership, and work to harness the potential of waste-to-energy.

WYG Ireland has claimed extracting energy from waste is one obvious solution to resolving two of the critical issues facing Ireland at the moment, namely, the urgent need to divert waste away from landfill, and the need to identify and implement alternative forms of energy to reduce our dependence on imported fossil fuels.

Speaking to delegates at the Energy Ireland conference 2009, Michael Cunningham, Managing Director of WYG Ireland's Environmental & Planning business said: "Ireland's waste management industry is in danger of going into complete disarray if the Government cannot step back from its vested interests in waste collection and disposal and put in place the necessary infrastructure and policy that supports the waste hierarchy as detailed in the Waste Directive 2008.

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"We currently have a situation where the Government is acting as both regulator and operator; this has resulted in legal battles with the private operators over who collects waste and consequently where this waste is disposed of."

He continued: "What we need is infrastructure and a combination of incentives and levies to ensure that the material which can be recycled does not end up in a waste to energy plant or landfill site and the material that cannot be recycled is treated in a waste to energy plant."

The Waste Directive 2008 made it clear that recovery of energy from waste is the preferred solution to disposal at landfill. Ireland faces substantial fines from the European Commission if it fails to divert waste away from landfill.

(PR/JM)