Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the work the Minister of State has undertaken since the passage of the Act. I must say, however, that his Department continues to view the circular economy through the very narrow lens of waste and levies on waste materials. That is evidenced in his own presentation but also in the plan which he recently presented, where the ambition is zero growth in waste per head of population over the next six years. That is simply not ambitious enough in the waste arena, let alone in the wider circular economy context.

Food waste is continuing to grow, from the latest numbers I have seen. Our recycling rates are quoted as 41% and next year we have to hit 55%. We have a problem here. I am looking forward to the game-changer which I hope will come when the Minister of State publishes the circular economy strategy. As he knows, that strategy is to be sectoral. We are to have targets for material use reduction in each sector, reductions in the numbers of materials which are non-recyclable and increases in repair and reuse. It is all there in the Bill. We are also to have improvement in maintenance and the optimal use of products which are deployed.

The key here is to take a much bigger picture. The Government has not really cottoned on to the potential of the circular economy as an approach that will look at biodiversity and climate, as well as looking at the end of the waste stream. The extreme example is in travel, where we have materials sitting outside every one of our homes and 95% of the time they are idle. Our model of meeting our travel needs is quite dysfunctional and a circular economy approach would start to address this.

Some 90% of people of my age are living in homes which are far too big for our needs and there really is not any user-friendly approach to help people remain in their own neighbourhoods and still right-size their properties. There is a bigger arena of potential in this than what is currently being tapped. That is my little rant for the day.

Where is the bigger strategy that will actually start to shift the dial in key sectors? Will we see, particularly for food and construction, a sectoral strategy with a big tent encompassing architects, designers, procurers of buildings, waste management on site, reuse, the EPA and a proper integrated approach to improving the impact of construction and food in our economy?

I welcome the green public procurement document but I tried to read it before the meeting and I could not find a single target or a baseline figure for where we are at or hope to get to in any sector, be it school meals, as the Chair was talking about, construction or anything else. Who will drive this?

Will it happen through the work of the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications or will there be a responsibility to report for every State body that procures at any scale? What is meant by making a green choice is not defined. I know it is complicated but I could not find it within the document. Our recircularity rate is 2%. That is what we need to start shifting and we need to redesign how we think about things if we are to achieve that. What will the impact of the deposit and return scheme be on conventional collectors for whom this is probably the most valuable piece going into the green bin? Are we going to see financial push back from the charges on green bins? That very valuable stream is no longer being collected by the standard collectors.