Dr. Tom Ryan:

On behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency, I thank the Chairman and members for the opportunity to address this important issue. As the committee is aware, the EPA’s mission is to protect and improve our environment as a valuable asset for the people of Ireland and to protect against the harmful effects of radiation and pollution. A substantial area of EPA activity in achieving that mission is the collection and statutory reporting of national waste statistics and the development and implementation of the national waste prevention programme.

In the context of national waste statistics, the Waste Reduction Bill proposes to target waste streams that are classified as packaging waste. The EPA reports national statistics on this waste stream on an annual basis to the European Commission. In 2015, over 980,000 tonnes of packaging waste was generated in Ireland, with packaging waste making up about one third of total municipal waste generated. Typical packaging is made from materials such as plastic, cardboard, paper, glass, steel, aluminium, wood and textile. Packaging made of composite, or two or more, materials is also frequently used, for example, in the coffee cups we take away from forecourts and the milk and juice cartons we use every day. In 2015, of packaging waste materials, plastics comprised 29% of the total, 84% of which is recycled or recovered through waste incineration. Paper and board made up 41% of packaging waste and 99% of that waste stream is recycled or recovered. For further information, interested parties may refer to the EPA’s recently redeveloped waste statistics platform on our website.

It is instructive to note that Ireland currently meets its statutory recycling targets for waste packaging but future targets envisaged in the EU’s circular economy package will likely prove far more challenging. For example, while Ireland recycled 34% of plastic packaging waste in 2015, exceeding the EU target of 22.5%, the current proposals in the circular economy package call for 55% of plastic packaging to be recycled or prepared for reuse by 2025.

While Ireland has made progress in improving recycling and recovery levels, further progress is needed to protect the environment, to meet the requirements of the incoming EU regulations and to facilitate the transition to a circular economy in Ireland.

As part of the process and commitment to continual improvement, the EPA is continually refining and developing national waste statistics in terms of how they are collected, assessed and published. In that regard, we are currently completing a new, comprehensive waste characterisation project, one of whose objectives will include, for example, estimates of the quantity of disposable cups in municipal waste. The report from that project will be issued during 2018, and it will provide more definitive statistics on that particular waste stream. We will be very happy to share the outcome of the project during the year with the committee and other interested parties.

I would like to make some more observations, particularly on the Bill. The EPA believes it is important that waste policy and legislation be guided by the waste hierarchy, which accords the highest priority to waste prevention, followed by preparing for reuse, recycling and energy recovery, with disposal being the least desirable option. In this respect, Ireland's national waste prevention programme was established in 2004. It is led by the EPA. The EPA welcomes innovative measures that will increase resource-use efficiency and waste prevention, including actions to reduce the use of disposable items. In addition, such measures as reduce the scourge of societal littering are also to be welcomed. We recognise the range of options available. We desire to be innovative and efficient in that regard. For example, Ireland has pioneered economic initiatives that have changed consumer behaviour and prevented waste. A very pertinent example is the plastic bag levy. A range of extended producer-responsibility schemes have been quite successful.