Identification and development of waste management alternatives for Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)

The European Union Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Directive (2001/42/EC) requires the assessment of likely significant effects on the environment of implementing plans or programmes and reasonable alternatives. While SEA regulations and guidelines emphasize rigour and objectivity in the assessment of alternatives they have little to say on their actual identification. Therefore, criteria should be developed which would aid decision makers in the identification of alternatives appropriate to the tier of decision-making and which meet the objectives of SEA.A methodology is set out in this paper for identifying SEA alternatives for a proposed waste management plan/programme. Specifically, the methodology describes a set of alternatives identification criteria, which will meet the requirements and objectives of SEA and waste management legislation. The outputs from the methodology will help focus on the identification of more sustainable alternatives for waste management planning in Ireland.