Ireland is seriously lagging behind in its commitment to recycle plastic waste, the State's environmental watchdog has said.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Ireland generated over one million tonnes of packaging waste in 2020, for the fourth year in a row.

Ireland continues to achieve high levels of recycling for glass (84%), paper and cardboard (78%) and metal packaging (71%).

However, plastics present a major challenge. Only 29% of plastic packaging waste was recycled in 2020, a long way off the 2025 EU target of 50%.

The majority of Ireland's plastic packaging waste is being incinerated, due to poor segregation in businesses and homes, as well as challenges in finding financially viable markets for lightweight and low-quality plastics.

In Association with

The EPA warned that if the current practices continue, Ireland will struggle to meet plastic recycling targets and the climate emissions associated with managing plastic waste will continue to grow.

It said targeted financial and regulatory measures are urgently needed to drive a step change improvement in plastic recycling.

The share of plastic packaging waste incinerated for energy recovery has grown year on year from 44% in 2017 to 71% in 2020, contributing an estimated 331,926 tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere in 2020. Plastics are made from fossil fuels, and the carbon built into them is released as carbon dioxide when incinerated at end of life.

On average, 2.7 kg of CO2 is emitted for every kg of plastic incinerated.

Sharon Finegan, director of the EPA's office of environmental sustainability, said: "While Ireland is meeting current recycling targets, future targets will be more challenging...

"Achieving the step change improvement needed in plastic recycling requires fiscal and regulatory measures to be introduced without delay."