WYG Ireland claims extracting energy from waste is the ‘obvious solution’ to resolving two of the critical issues facing Ireland at the moment.

Firstly, the urgent need to divert waste away from landfill and, secondly, the need to find and start different forms of energy to reduce the country’s dependence on imported fossil fuels.

Speaking to delegates at the Energy Ireland conference this week, Michael Cunningham, managing director of WYG Ireland’s environmental and planning business called for action to prevent chaos.

He 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.

“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.”

The conference, which is Ireland’s national energy summit, is a major annual conference for the energy sector, north and south, and this year was attended by around 300 delegates across its two days.

Luke Walsh

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