Forthcoming proposals designed to overhaul European Union waste legislation is scheduled for publication later in 2014 and will review several EU directives, and could introduce new waste targets, with the aim of driving greater resource efficiency in line with the 2011 Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe and the Eco-innovation Action Plan. Among the directives...

The EPA estimate  that 30% of private wells in Ireland are contaminated by E. coli arising from animal or human waste. HSE reports a growing number of cases of VTEC – a particularly nasty form of E.coli. Analysis of cases finds that patients are up to four times more likely to have consumed untreated water...

Coca Cola recognised were one of the first companies to recognise water efficiency as adding significant value to their bottom line. For more than 40 years ago Coca Cola have lead the way to demonstrate how a global business can improve their business and add significant value to the countries and communities in which they...

A Water Stewardship Standard setting out how to use and manage water responsibly has been launched by an alliance of 29 organisations including businesses, NGOs and parts of the UN. The Water Stewardship Standard 1.0 is based around the principles of good water governance, and applies to all water types, including freshwater, drinking water, effluent and snow:...

Companies of all sizes are responsible for the safety of chemicals that they place on the EU market. Recent surveys and checks by inspectors show that many small companies using chemicals are still unaware of REACH and CLP or may think that the EU’s chemical law does not apply to their business. The leaflet “Chemical Safety...

The new ‘Chemical Handling Directive’ 2014/27/EU proposes to better protect workers from risks linked to exposure to chemicals at the workplace. This Directive amends five existing EU health and safety Directives on protection of workers from exposure to harmful chemicals to align them with the latest rules on classification, labelling and packaging of chemicals (Regulation (EC) 1272/2008)....

From 1st January 2014 Irish Water is responsible for the production, distribution and monitoring of drinking water from over 1000 public water supplies, serving 82.0% of the population.  The remainder of the population is supplied by group water schemes (6.6%), small private supplies (0.8%) and private wells (10.6%) that are exempt under the Regulations. Responsibility for the water...

Anaerobic Digestion Capacity >75 tonnes per day will be subject to the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) from 2015.  A review of EU industrial pollution guidance for waste treatment plants has begun. The existing technical reference document (BREF) was adopted by the European Commission in 2006. It outlines the best available techniques (BAT) and associated emission levels...

The European IPPC Bureau publishes a range of reference documents on Best Available Techniques (commonly known as Bref Documents or Brefs). A review of the reference document on Best Available Techniques for waste treatments (WT Bref) has commenced. The Bureau will be assisted by a technical working group (TWG) comprising representatives from the EU member...

The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Biological Agents) Regulations 2013 ( S.I. No. 572 of 2013) sets down the minimum requirements for the protection of workers from the health risks associated with biological agents in the workplace. The regulations must be applied to any activity where workers are actually or potentially exposed to biological agents as...