The Republic of Ireland (Ireland) is reportedly producing more waste compared to a decade ago, likely to miss 2025 EU recycling targets, The Journal reported.
According to a new report by the country’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Ireland generated 15.7 million tonnes of waste in 2022, which is 20% more than ten years prior.
This increase poses challenges for Ireland’s efforts to reduce waste and transition towards a circular economy.
The report showed that the current municipal waste recycling rate in Ireland stands at 41%, which needs to reach 55% by 2025 to meet EU targets.
EPA environmental sustainability office director David Flynn said: “Ireland’s progress towards a circular economy – a system of minimising waste and reducing the need for new raw materials by upholding the quality of products and materials for longer – 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.”
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In terms of packaging waste, the recycling rate is at 60%, but this must increase to 65% by 2025. The report highlights that only 32% of plastic packaging was recycled, an increase from 28% in 2021, yet the target for 2025 is 50%.
In 2022, Ireland generated 3.2 million tonnes of municipal waste, which is a slight increase from 2021. Notably, over 1.2 million tonnes of this municipal waste, or 38%, was exported to other countries.
The EPA indicated that this reliance on other countries for waste treatment underscores Ireland’s vulnerabilities in waste collection and treatment capabilities.
Furthermore, construction and demolition accounts for half of Ireland’s waste, with 85% composed of soil and stone. Of this, 82% of construction waste was recovered, according to the EPA.
There was a 3% decrease reported in 2022 from 2021 in the proportion of households who have access to a brown bin for food and organic waste. As a result, only 66% of households had access to such bins by 2022.
However, this figure is expected to rise in the coming years due to changes in 2023 that mandate waste collectors to provide households with a brown bin.
