31/03/2003

Archived item. This item is published here for historical reasons. The information below may be out of date.

Pat The Cope Opens County Carlow Chamber Of Commerce Seminar On Waste Management

“There are business opportunities to be exploited in a sophisticated waste management environment”, Minister of State Gallagher, said today (Monday, 31st March 2003).

Mr. Pat The Cope Gallagher, T.D., Minister of State at the Department of the Environment and Local Government was speaking at the opening of the County Carlow Chamber of Commerce seminar on waste management.

Recognising costs of waste disposal as a real cost to business, Minister of State Gallagher said that he “was glad that this conference has a focus on business” particularly as developing policy and waste legislation will place increased responsibility on producers and business generally to minimise waste production and reuse/recycle as much as possible.

In particular the new Packaging Regulations, which came into force on 1st March will lead to a dramatic change in the way business must deal with packaging waste. These “new Regulations introduce a mandatory requirement on all businesses to segregate specified packaging waste materials arising on their premises and to have it collected by authorised waste operators for recycling”.

Minister of State Gallagher also said that the recently established E-Waste Task Force included experts from all the relevant sectors including manufacturers and retailers and he urged electrical retailers to become involved and develop awareness of their obligations under the new E-Waste directive.