Waste

An Taisce has written today to Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Richard Bruton TD on the eve of what may be his final EU Environment Council meeting.

Submissions are due today on the draft National Planning Framework – Ireland 2040 Our Plan [1]

An Taisce’s submission[2] acknowledges the proposals to consolidate development in our cities, towns and villages to avoid wasteful sprawl and promote walkable communities that encourage healthy life styles and civil society.

However, Ian Lumley, Advocacy Officer, An Taisce stated “It is essential that the NPF acknowledges a global environment of increasing climate impact and ecological destruction."

On Saturday the 16th of September 2017 Bridgefoot Street Community Garden hosted an open day, and end of season Harvest. Craig Benton from Stop Food Waste was on hand to demonstrate how to compost effectively, from 10 am onward. Initially the attendees were volunteers with The Young Friends of the Earth Environmental Group.These were soon joined by Bridgefoot Street Community Gardeners, and also other gardeners from further afield. Specifically Brookfield Community Garden and Friarstown Allotments in South Dublin.

In May 2016, the Commission launched the Environmental Implementation Review (EIR), an analysis over a period of two years aimed at improving the implementation of existing EU environmental policy and legislation. As a first step, the Commission drafted reports on the 28 member states, in order to identify environmental challenges and opportunities. The aim in producing these reports has been to bring about communication over common environmental challenges within the EU and also the best ways to address major issues in implementation.

Our treasure trove of nature, Booterstown Marsh underwent its annual Spring Clean last month. For a suburban marsh we were glad to see there had been no major fly tipping or dumping which has blighted this treasure trove of nature in the past. Nevertheless, an afternoon at the job and with a troupe of nearly 20 volunteers we gave the marsh a good tidy up. Between the clean-ups in October and April some 50 bags of rubbish were removed from the marsh, protecting the many birds that live there from harm and improving its appearance. Many thanks to all volunteers who came out and got stuck in.

This report on behalf of An Taisce examines the progress of the EPA’s National Inspection Plan (NIP) for Domestic Wastewater Treatment Systems (DWWTS); in particular, septic tanks.

Saturday the 4th of July saw the first of two July Green Communities Training Events, and this was held at Brookfield Community Garden, Jobstown, Tallaght, South Dublin. The day's main focus saw volunteers attempt to transform a wooden pallet into a flower planter to hang from walls or railings. This was no easy task as the warm sunny day was quite breezy which made measuring and afixing the landscaping material to the wooden planters more difficult.