Ireland is among the highest waste producers in Europe per person. We’re a small nation now with but our population is growing as fast as our appetite for consumerism. So we’re going to have to understand and decide how we are going to manage it all. Otherwise, the big decisions could be taken out of our hands.In 1995, over 90% of Irish household waste went to landfills. Evidently, this led to our landfills reaching capacity, And, around the same time, the European Union started to crack down on this method of waste disposal due to the high volume of emissions that landfills produce. So, we then relied on exporting our waste, and in 2016 China was taking 95% of our plastic waste. Then in 2018, China closed the doors. In the meantime, Ireland's first Commercial incinerator for household waste begin its operations at Indaver's County Meath site in 2011. Then 6 years later in 2017, a second incinerator began it's operations in Dublin and is owned by Covanta.Indaver, a privately-owned Belgium company, are proposing to build another incinerator or waste to energy facility, in Cork Harbour. A consortium of local resident groups in the area, known as the Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment or CHASE, have been objecting Indaver's proposals for almost 20 years. It's a fascinating tale with complexities, characters and story arcs that would rival a good film. But because of this, it’s a difficult story to research. There are countless reports, proposals, newspaper articles, television interviews and it’s just really hard to try and understand everything that has happened and to form an opinion as a result.I am a Cork Harbour resident so the idea of an incinerator in my back yard is worrying and naturally I am against it but I don’t know all of the facts. If it doesn’t go here just it just go somewhere else or can we find better solutions? I’m open to the idea that this is the best solution so I’ll be interviewing people about the Indaver project but also about the broader issues with waste in Ireland.If you have any feedback on this podcast or ideas for people to interview I’d be delighted to hear them. You can reach me at [email protected]. Next week, I am hoping to interview an expert on the subject of Artificial Intelligence about the future of waste disposal as well as creation.

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