(The Nationalist, 17 August 2001)
Ireland produces eighty million tons of waste a year, but we have one of the lowest levels of re-cycling in Europe. We have no large-scale waste incinerator; no one wants it in their backyard, so we export our hazardous waste, passing on the problem to others. We rely on landfill sites, potentially a threat to ground-water supplies, and abandoned in most industrialized countries.
New EU legislation requires manufacturers of certain products, such as televisions, computers, washing machines and fridges, to collect them for disposal at the end of their working life. Ireland asked to be exempted from this provision.
We use 1.2 billion plastic bags a year in the Republic; that’s about 320 per person. Many end up scattered anywhere, from hedges to rivers to streets to blocked drains. Cork and Dundalk won first place in a “competition” for the dirtiest city and town in the EU.
Water is a basic and precious resource, but in Ireland the Environmental Protection Agency, in its Millennium Report, said that 42% of group water schemes and 7% of local authority schemes do not meet national drinking water standards, and it is estimated that 36% of Dublin’s drinking water supply is lost through leakage from pipes.
Since the passage of the Abortion Act in Britain in 1967, about 100,000 Irish women have had an abortion there. One child in every twelve conceived in Ireland is aborted.
Irish 15-16 year olds rank among the top three nationalities in Europe for binge-drinking, and 70% had been drunk in the previous 12 months. The proportion of teenagers who were drunk 3 or more times in the previous 30 days increased from 15% in 1994 to 24% in 1999. Irish, English and Danish 11 to 17 year olds drink more than their counterparts in 25 other European countries.
There are 13,000 known heroin addicts in Dublin, and they die at an average of two a week. Ireland has the youngest drug-taking population in Europe.
In Ireland, half of Leaving Cert students are committed smokers. One Irish person dies of a smoking-related illness every ninety minutes. That’s 6,000 a year, about 14 times the number killed in road accidents. Those who die lose an average of between 10 and 15 years of their potential life.
There is much more of this gloom, but it makes for depressing reading. As a nation, we are often better at seeking excuses than finding remedies. We can do better: in 1922, 1% of Ireland’s area was under trees; now it’s 8%. That’s progress. Let’s each do what we can to make the Emerald Isle green again.