Dominick Donnelly

13^th May 2009

Minister for Environment launches new Market Development Plan to create jobs from waste currently exported

Mr John Gormley, T.D., Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government today launched an innovative €13 million Market Development Programme to develop new markets and help create new Irish jobs by transforming waste into new sustainable products.  Targeting entrepreneurs, third level institutions, manufacturers and waste organisations, over the next five years, the Market Development Programme will identify and help develop markets for a variety of waste streams including plastics, paper, metals, organics, glass and wood.  Entrepreneurs interested in creating new businesses from waste can get further information at www.mdg.ie.

Green Party member of Passage West Town Council, and candidate for Cork County Council, Cllr. Dominick Donnelly, who co-authored the Green Party’s waste policy and who is very involved with CHASE in fighting the Ringaskiddy incinerators, said:  “I welcome this initiative from Minister Gormley, which will help create a proper recycling industry in Ireland.  In the past recycling in Ireland was only seen as the segregation of waste into different waste streams.  Most of this was then exported to be reprocessed into something useful somewhere else.  However a proper recycling industry in Ireland, where we treat our waste as a valuable resource, will create literally thousands of jobs and will be a huge boost to the Irish economy.  This announcement from Minister Gormley is a first step along that road, where waste is no longer a problem, but is a valuable resource.”

Cllr. Donnelly continued:  “I used to own and run the first green shop in Ireland, All That’s Green in Kinsale, where I used to import and sell many products made from recycled materials, such as stationery and plastics.  Almost none of these recycled products came from Ireland.  It struck me then how we should be treating all waste as a valuable resource, and turning it back into products which we can sell.  The days of burying waste in a hole in the ground, or even worse, burning it in an incinerator, are thankfully coming to an end, and this Market Development Programme is very much part of the way forward.”

“I welcome this as the start of a new dawn in Ireland.  I have been advocating for many years that we must not treat waste as a problem, but rather see it as a resource for recycling and reuse.  This is the start of a whole new industry for Ireland, and I encourage all entrepreneurs to get involved,” concluded Cllr. Donnelly.