When it comes to preparing for the impact of EU 'waste' fines that could amount to £900,000 in the first year, 2010–2011, alone, Fermanagh District Council, thanks to its brand new state-of-the-art recycling facility at Drummee, is way ahead of the posse of other Councils in the West.
That arose from a spirited debate at this week's Council meeting following a report of a recent conference in Derry, which involved the Southern Waste Management Partnership (SWaMP) to which Fermanagh and 14 other Councils belong.
The Chief Executive, Rodney Connor, suggested that the two Council delegates who attended would agree with him that Fermanagh was on the right road.
"This Council has always been way ahead of all the other Councils as far as dealing with our waste. In fact, I would not be very confident that the other Councils in the Group will get their act together quickly enough to be able to deal with their waste before the fines from Europe start in 2010–11.
"There will be fines over £900,000 in that year alone if we don't do what we're proposing to do, along with £400,000 in landfill tax alone."
He said that he had attended that meeting in Derry and he had suggested to the other Council representatives that Fermanagh would work with them and that they could treat what was being done at Drummee as a pilot scheme.
"As a result of that suggestion," he reported, "the SwaMP Group will be coming to Fermanagh for their next meeting and they will see for themselves what we have at Drummee which, again, is way ahead of anything else."
Mr Connor then revealed that the Strategic Investment Board was well aware of what Fermanagh Council was doing at Drummee and he told the members that he would now try and get into the SIB funding stream.
Bertie Kerr, one of the two Councillors who attended the SWaMP meeting, suggested that the Group was no further on than the last time he had attended a meeting, in late 2005.
"I am extremely disappointed at that, but I am delighted our staff have brought it so far anyway."
Councillor Gerry McHugh, MLA gave out about the practice of fly-tipping in Fermanagh, and about the amount of plastic wrapping waste created by Enniskillen's big stores: "You would need a kango to get things out of some of the boxes. I reckon that of every three lorries that go down the road, there are two carrying waste in the form of plastic waste."
He then referred to Germany where customers were obliged to strip off all the plastic from the product they have bought and leave it on the floor of the shopping centre.
Why, he wondered, were things not at that level here?
The Council Chairman, Alex Baird, said that it wasn't the first time he had heard that suggestion which, he believed made sense.
Robert Irvine, a chartered surveyor, told the meeting that landfill tax was going to be punitive and he asked the Council to take a proactive approach to construction waste.
"The construction industry is going to be one of the bigger problems over the next five to 15 years with regard to how its waste is handled and disposed of," he stated.
