When I arrived in Cork for my study, I received a warm welcome from the Irish people. They were nice, warm and they were eager to please me. But one thing I find very strange.

I don’t know why but many people are untidy. Everything must wait. They just do what is really necessary, the rest can wait. It’s a life-style that I can understand but not when it is detrimental to others or to the environment.

I met different people. Some people sort their household waste for recycling, and some don’t. Then there are people who don’t respect the environment and leave their rubbish everywhere.

I’m very surprised by the rubbish in the street and in the countryside. In France we see cigarette butts and mess on the pavement but not milk containers or household waste like I see in Ireland. In the countryside in Ireland I saw mattresses and other rubbish in the ditches.

For a long time, in France, household waste was thrown into uncontrolled landfill sites. Today, however with new regulations and the expansion of the specific collection service, waste is composted, recycled, incinerated or deposited in controlled landfill sites. The treatment of waste is different for each Department (French administrative region).

I come from the Department of Jura which was the first Department in France to recycle their household waste. In 2004, an estimated 31% of household waste in Jura was recycled. An additional 12% was composted. 32% was incinerated while 25% went into landfills. In France as a whole, the figures are not quite so good.

In France, local authorities have made big efforts to explain to people the importance of recycling. The local authorities have also organised the collection of household waste and they have created waste-reception centres.

Collection of household waste
In Jura, in our house, we have two bins which are collected by refuse collection truck. The blue bin is for recycling (cardboard, aluminium cans, food cans, plastic bottles, paper, and recently plastic bags ...) and the grey bin is for the rest. The household waste in the blue bin is sorted in the local sorting centre. Once separated in a sorting centre, the waste is sent to recycling factories, where it’s transformed into a primary material once again.

The grey bin will generally be collected once a week and the blue bin every two weeks, whether by a private operator or a local authority. In 2004, people paid less than 60 euros per year for this.

This selective collection has been effective in Jura since 1994-95.

The contents of the grey bin and any un-recyclable materials from the blue bin are either incinerated or put into landfills.

There are 2 composting centres in Jura which treat over 8000 tonnes of waste per year. Also, in the countryside, some people compost waste at home.

Glass and paper is taken voluntarily by householders to their bring bank or bring centre. There is one container for glass and another for paper. The contents of the container are transported directly to the recycling factories. In the Department of Jura there is one glass bring centre for every 250 people. There is one paper bring centre for every 400 people in the district of Dole and one for every 1 200 people in Haut-Jura.
Glass is considered too hazardous to be put in the blue household bin.

Householders can take other hazardous or voluminous waste to a waste reception centre. There is no charge for this. In 2004, there was one waste-reception centre in Jura for 7 500 people.

In Ireland in 2004, there were 1929 bring banks (one bring bank for every 2 082 people) and 69 civic amenity sites (one for every 58 198 people).

In the last 30 years, the production of household waste in France has increased by 60%. We are in a consumerist society in which many people are frivolous and spend more than they need. Our lifestyle is directly responsible for increase of our household waste.

In Ireland like in France, we must reduce our waste. The easiest rubbish to deal with is that which we don’t produce.

Government policy
In Ireland as in France, government policy is to reduce the volume of our weekly domestic waste. Local authorities have been asked to produce waste management plants, which include ways of reducing the amount of waste produced and increasing levels of recycling in their area.

The first French law on elimination of household waste and recovery materials was voted on the 15 July 1975. On the 13 July 1992, the “loi dechets” (waste law) defined the 5 following targets :
• to prevent and reduce the production of waste and noxious waste
• to improve the waste transport system
• to develop the waste (re-use, recycling, energy as in incineration)
• to inform the population
• to throw only non-recyclable waste into landfill from 1 July 2002

A new law prioritising recycling came into force in April 1998.

In Ireland, under the terms of the Waste Management Act (1996) and the Waste Management (planning) Regulations (1997), all local authorities in Ireland are obliged to collect or arrange for the collection of the domestic waste in their area. Then household waste is in majority thrown in landfill.

The recent emergence of a landfill shortage, alongside the continued discovery of illegal dumps, comes as no surprise. Ireland has until recently paid scant attention to the issue of waste disposal.

To reduce the landfill, France uses incineration. I think that the incineration of household waste which can’t be recycled is a good thing. Waste is reduced by 90% of its volume and energy is produced. Besancon, a city in Franche-Comte, uses energy from incineration for heating a quarter of its city. In 2000 however, a survey revealed that people who lived near that incinerator in Besancon have twice the risk of contracting a cancer related dioxines.

New European Legislation has created new safety standards for incineration. From the 28 December 2005, incineration plants must comply with a new EU Directive which is more stringent about pollutants and environmental impacts.

Some local authorities are for all incineration because it’s easier than recycling and cheaper. They don’t want organised recycling. Various associations like ‘Les amis de la terre’ (Friends of the Earth) were formed to oppose incineration. Some of them help local authorities to organise waste management plans. Often people oppose the building of incineration plants when the motive for building is simply the avoidance of expenses incurred in recycling.
In 1998, legislation was passed which halted the proliferation of incineration plants. The legislation also promoted the development of recycling in all the French Departments. In 2003, there were 123 incinerators for household waste in France.

The French policy is to reduce waste, incinerator, landfill, to develop a awareness eco-citizen and to improve recycling and composting.

The provision of facilities like bring centers, civic amenity centres and kerbside collection, coupled with the promotion of domestic and collective composting, and also an increase in recycling capacity, are the key features in the plan to divert waste from landfill and to reduce incineration. But the priority is the reduction of waste at source. Waste minimisation and reduction can play an important role by limiting the growth in waste production.

All people are concerned by household waste and its elimination. If we don’t preserve our environment now, what will we leave for the future generation?