Ireland generated 15.7million tonnes of waste in one year in 2022 – a growth of over 20% in the last decade, new figures from the State’s environmental watchdog show, writes Helen Bruce.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Ireland’s progress towards a circular economy, based on the reuse and recycling of existing materials, is stalling.
The report notes that half of all waste generated in Ireland is construction and demolition waste.
Most of this (85%) is soil and stone waste, but this has decreased, and a large portion of this type of waste was reused in back filling for land restoration, the watchdog noted.
Less encouragingly, the total amount of municipal waste remained relatively static at 3.2million tonnes.
The EPA said 15% of municipal waste was sent to landfill in 2022.
Just over 40% of municipal waste was incinerated, while the rest was exported.
It said the 2022 figure was a drop on the 17.6million tonnes generated in 2021, but still represented 8kg per person every day, and was a major increase on the 12.7million tonnes in 2012.
Its newly published Circular Economy and Waste Statistics Highlights Report for 2022, also highlights that Ireland’s capacity to collect and treat waste is vulnerable and underperforming.
It said the country has “an over-reliance on other countries to treat our recycling materials and general municipal waste”.
Just two thirds (66%) of Irish households had access to a brown bin for food and organic waste in 2022, a drop of three percentage points from 2021.
Regulatory changes in 2023 mean that waste collectors are now obliged to provide all households with a brown bin, so this figure should improve.
Total packaging waste, including plastic packaging, remained unchanged at 1.2million tonnes in 2022.
A total of 32% of plastic packaging generated in Ireland that year was recycled, up from 28% in 2021, but far below the 65% target set for 2025.
The report found 30,680 tonnes of single-use plastic bottles were placed on the market in 2022.
Almost half of these were collected for recycling, but the EPA is hopeful this amount will rise due to the introduction this year of the new Deposit Return Scheme.
David Flynn, director of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Sustainability, said: “Today’s report from the EPA shows that Ireland’s progress towards a circular economy is stalling.
“Current measures to prevent waste, to promote reuse and to encourage recycling are not enough to meet mandatory municipal waste and plastic packaging targets.”
The goal of the pilot programme is to prevent plastic bottles and cans from being discarded into general waste, and ultimately allow for better recycling while also reducing litter.
Photo Fennell Photography
He said the strong implementation of existing policies, and the introduction of measures supporting investment in new circular economy infrastructure, will help the situation.
Warren Phelan, programme manager of the EPA’s Circular Economy Programme, said: “Deeper change is needed right across the economy to accelerate the transition to a more circular economy.
“Effective regulation, incentives and enforcement are required to influence businesses and consumers to adopt best practices in production, supply, purchasing, use and reuse of goods, products and services.”
