Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairperson and members for inviting me to this meeting to discuss the current state of play in respect of the circular economy following on from the signing into law of the Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act in 2022.

In line with the evolution of EU and UN environmental policy, the waste action plan for a circular economy was published in September 2020. The first circular economy strategy and the circular economy programme were published in November 2021. In July 2022, the Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act completed its passage through the Oireachtas. Over the past two years we have put in place the necessary policy and regulatory framework required for a successful circular transition. The national waste management plan for a circular economy, which was published last month, further enhances the regulatory framework by setting out the specific targets and actions which need to be taken over the period 2024 to 2030 to achieve this transition. Now that the policy and regulatory framework is in place, I intend to build on that momentum.

Ireland’s first national food waste prevention roadmap is a key step in steering our efforts towards achieving the goal of reducing food waste by 50% by 2030.

This roadmap addresses a number of key areas that we need to develop in order to put us on the right trajectory to reduce food waste in a meaningful and robust way. It sets out the context of food waste in Ireland, informed by the latest available data, and sets out priority actions to bring the focus on food waste prevention across key sectors in the food supply chain together in a coherent manner.

The new circular economy fund was established last July. It signals a clear commitment to further integration of circular economy principles in practice. My Department has recently taken a number of very significant steps to help drive the necessary improvements to our waste segregation practices which will form a major part of our efforts to meet forthcoming EU waste recycling targets. In July 2023 incentivised waste collection in the commercial sector was introduced, and since January of this year all waste collection service providers are obliged to provide all households with a separate collection for biowaste, or what is known as a brown bin. In September 2023 I introduced a levy of €10 for every tonne of municipal waste recovered in Ireland or exported abroad for recovery. I also announced a corresponding increase in the existing landfill levy to €85 per tonne. These levies will encourage more recycling and re-use, and greater efforts to segregate waste at source.

Construction waste is the fastest growing waste stream, accounting for over half of the total waste currently being generated. Given that substantial volumes of this weight are potentially preventable, re-usable or recyclable it presents a significant opportunity for us to reduce our circularity gap. The recovery levy does not currently apply to the recovery of construction and demolition material and therefore the challenges we face in terms of Ireland’s overall waste performance and the achievement of EU targets, our circularity gap and the huge resource opportunity that is being lost in the construction sector, and our extremely constrained capacity situation with respect to municipal solid waste are such that the continued application of levy exemption for construction and demolition waste is neither tenable nor sustainable.

The publication of the EPA’s national by-product criteria for greenfield soil and stone, and for site-won asphalt, aids the prevention of construction and demolition material becoming waste in the first instance, diverting material from incineration. In this regard, my Department is looking to remove the exemption for recovering and landfilling construction and demolition waste effective from 1 September. My officials are working closely with the National Waste Collection Permit Office, NWCPO, on preparing local government for this change and continue to consult with industry.

In addition, my Department commissioned a study to examine the continued relevance of existing exemptions to the landfill levy with a view to improving our waste performance and reducing our circularity gap. A levy on the disposal of waste has been in place since 2002 to divert salvageable material away from landfills. However, last year almost 90% of landfilled waste was exempt from this disposal levy. Therefore, the landfill levy regulations do not properly incentivise waste prevention or segregation due to a wide range of exemptions. The study has called for the landfill levy to move in step with the new waste recovery levy, with the proposed recommendations under consideration by my officials in consultation with stakeholders.

I am also conscious of the need to ensure transparency in waste collection pricing structures. In line with commitments given in A Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy, my officials are currently working with the NWCPO to examine whether fair and transparent pricing is consistent in the market and how that information is disclosed to customers. My officials are also working with the NWCPO to carry out a study on incentivised charging structures in the waste collection market. This study will examine what, if any, improvements are needed to ensure that waste collection systems are fully incentivising waste prevention and improved source segregation practices.

Earlier this month I published the green public procurement strategy and action plan, Buying Greener. This will play a key role in driving the implementation of green and circular procurement practices across the public sector. Key areas of focus in the green public procurement strategy and action plan include measures to progress green public procurement implementation in the public sector, green public procurement monitoring and reporting, training and awareness, and further development of national green public procurement guidance and criteria. In addition, the strategy sets out how we will undertake market engagement, avail of research and innovation, and EU and international initiatives on green public procurement.

We have just seen the successful introduction of Ireland’s deposit return scheme for plastic bottles and aluminium and steel cans. This is the final step in this very exciting project, which has been a major undertaking for the beverage industry, retailers and the general public as well, through the DRS company Re-turn. This is the first such system across Britain and Ireland and is an example of how we can all embrace circularity in our everyday lives.

It is becoming increasingly clear the public is also embracing the concept. Last Saturday was our most prolific day yet. We had 806,000 transactions and over 2.3 million containers were returned. This was part of a steady and significant increase over the past number of weeks. To date, over 70.6 million empty containers have been returned by customers and the value of deposits paid out to customers has been €12.3 million. There were always going to be challenges associated with introducing the scheme and these are being managed. Re-turn is working proactively on an improvement programme with retailers and reverse vending machine, RVM, suppliers, and RVM availability is getting better as a result. Work is also ongoing with the National Disability Authority to ensure fit-for-purpose consultation with relevant parties.

Since the enactment of the Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022, I have also continued to work closely with the local authority sector to give it the additional enforcement tools needed to be better able to encourage people to do the right thing with their waste and to detect, and, where necessary, prosecute those who continue to harm their local environment through littering and illegal dumping. In this regard, I am pleased to confirm that all sections of the Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022 relating to the use of CCTV and other mobile recording devices have now been fully commenced. This means local authorities are now free to put the necessary procedures in place to allow for the GDPR-compliant use of these technologies to help combat the scourge of littering and illegal dumping.

My Department also continues to provide significant annual financial support to local authority efforts to tackle litter and unauthorised waste activities through the anti-litter and anti-graffiti awareness grant scheme, ALAGS, the anti-dumping initiative, ADI, the waste enforcement measures grant scheme and through funding the three waste enforcement regional lead authorities, WERLAs. In 2024 alone, my Department has allocated approximately €15 million to these measures.

Textiles is also a priority policy area for my Department to tackle the environmental degradation caused by this material stream and realise our circular economy ambitions. In global terms, we have come to recognise more recently how significant an impact textiles have on our environment, especially in terms of carbon emissions and water use. The recent waste characterisation survey showed that 9% of household waste bin consists of textiles, so this is clearly a problem. Recent research indicates that textile waste is estimated to be 170,000 tonnes per year, which equates to 35 kg per person per year, a quite staggering amount.

The Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022 recognises textiles as a priority sector and provides that the next whole circular economy strategy, due at the end of this year, will include targets for more sustainable production and consumption of textiles in Ireland. In 2022, I established the textiles advisory group that brought together relevant expertise from industry, the community and regulatory bodies. Building on the work of this group, alongside policy and legislative developments at EU level, my Department will be preparing a national policy statement on textiles and a circular economy roadmap for textiles later this year.

The Department's plans for increased circularity in textiles are being informed by policy developments at EU level. In particular, the European Commission published its proposal for targeted amendments to the waste framework directive in July 2023 with respect to food waste and textiles. This proposal aims to introduce a mandatory, EU-wide extended producer responsibility scheme for textile waste to support the EU requirement to have a separate collection of textiles in place by 2025 in line with the waste hierarchy. Negotiations on this proposal started in January of this year and my Department is actively involved in the discussions to progress this draft legislation that will support circularity in textiles.

Work is continuing on the next iteration of the circular economy strategy. It will have a statutory basis and, in line with the requirements under the Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022, will include targets for specified sectors, delivering on the potential to make significant contributions to the circular transition. To inform the strategy, a circularity gap report is being prepared. This is required, as in 2019 Ireland’s circular material use rate was the second worst in the EU at 1.6%, compared to an EU average of 11.9%. The purpose of this project is to enable us to better understand the levers for change in moving to a circular economy and the benefits these levers could bring based on solid analysis.

We need to size Ireland’s circularity gap to understand further how raw materials are processed and assembled to become the products that address the country’s needs. Understanding what happens at the end-of-use stage sheds light on the accumulation of materials in products, goods and the built environment around us. Furthermore, it reveals the extent to which Ireland currently achieves the recycling of resources back into the economy to provide a clear starting point to identify where different sectors and supply chains should focus their strategies going forward to deliver the biggest results in terms of reducing environmental impacts and increasing secondary material use ultimately narrowing our circularity gap.

I am committed to the introduction of a new regulatory system for end-of-waste products and by-products. End of waste is one of the pivotal issues for our circular economy ambition and is a key area for industry. The publication of a circular guidance for the construction sector, as part of the work of the construction sector group, is also a priority. The Department is in the process of finalising legislation to streamline the EPA licensing regime with a view to simplifying the process while also providing time-bound certainty to facilitate appropriate growth and economic development. We have made significant progress in recent years but we must continue to harness that momentum if we are to effect real change. Ireland’s ambition is to be an EU and global leader in the transition to a circular economy, a transition that will have positive environmental, economic and social impacts for everyone.

A transition to a circular economy offers the possibility of an alternative future, a sustainable future, and is a fundamental step towards achieving our climate targets. Through increased awareness, better informed consumption decisions and appropriate incentives, Ireland can become a leader in this field, delivering benefits in all sectors of society. We cannot continue to consume things without thinking about where the resources to make those things come from and how the waste from those products will be disposed of. We cannot continue to make, use and just throw away. A circular economy offers an alternative, and I look forward to continuing to work with this committee to realise it.