Nicole Bauer

Preventing the Emerald Isle from Sinking into Waste: Thermal Treatment: a Sustainable Solution for Ireland? Nicole Bauer

Since its economic boom in the 1990s Ireland has beenfacing ever growing waste arisings. Strict Europeanlegislation forced the country to find alternativesolutions to sole waste disposal on which the countryhad been relying on exclusively. The Irish Governmenthas aimed to decouple waste production from economicgrowth. The author doubts that the plannedintroduction of thermal treatment facilities would bean appropriate way to achieve the country´s ambitioustargets in terms of waste management. Alternativelythe author introduces a zero waste approach as asolution to Ireland´s waste problems. If a zero wasteapproach was applied emphasis would have to be put onreduction, minimization and recycling. Accordingly,the country of Ireland would pay its contribution toworld wide challenging environmental protection andsustainable resource management.