Ms Mindy O'Brien:

Outside, there are around 100 people protesting about our need to do something about plastic. After the Blue Planet series, as the Deputy noted earlier, and the Sky Ocean Rescue campaign, plastics is a huge issue on which we are now reaching the tipping point. According to the Ellen MacArthur foundation, 8 million tonnes of plastic are leeching into our marine environment. That is equivalent to a rubbish truck emptying a load of plastic into the ocean every minute. By 2050 we will have more plastic in the ocean than fish.

We have received figures from Repak regarding how much of the plastic bottles and aluminium cans are being recycled. We have calculated that around 2.5 million plastic bottles, 720,000 aluminium cans and 500,000 disposable coffee cups are either thrown away, incinerated or littered each day. These are valuable resources that leak from the recycling scheme and there is value in these resources. This is the result of our throwaway society, a far cry from where we were 20 years ago. A takeaway coffee then would have been a thermos of hot instant coffee. While we have improved our household recycling, and Repak has been instrumental in subsidising the collection of mixed dry recyclables, we are terrible on the go when we have takeaway containers, bottles, cans and single use items that are either thrown away or littered into the environment. We cannot continue with the status quoand we need to take a step back to address where the problem occurs and how we can resolve it.

First, we need to examine how we can prevent the waste. This can be done through reuse. Economic incentives such as the latte levy or the imposition of other economic instruments could be imposed on single use items to encourage people to bring their own bottles, coffee cups and containers. This can be administered in the same way as we do with the plastic bags, when vendors file their VAT returns. We could ban their sale but that would be a problem under article 18.

We need to capture as many valuable recyclables as we can. Where people do not have a choice of bringing their own, for instance, when they buy a can of Coke or a bottle of beer, we call for a deposit refund scheme to be established.

Deposit refund schemes have been successful all around the world. I grew up in the state of Michigan where we have had one in place since the 1970s and there is up to 98% net recovery, that is, recapture of drinks containers. We do not turn the bins over. We also have reverse vending machines in retail establishments. When people go shopping, they bring their bottles and cans, put them in and get the chit to present when they buy items. It is convenient and people do it when they go shopping. I walked a mile on a beach in Michigan in October and found one aluminium can the whole way. I have a ten minute walk from the DART to work where I found 50. There is a litter problem. Companies such as Wellman International in the North and Shabra in Monaghan support deposit retention schemes because the quality of plastics and aluminium collected in single streams is much higher than what one gets in dry recyclable material. On extended consumer responsibility, as was stated earlier, Repak charges the same fee for PET bottles and non-recyclable plastics. This needs to be reformed.

There is a cost to litter and drinks containers make up around 40% in volume of all litter. It was said that it is 3% but that it is in items collected rather than in volume. One cannot equate a plastic bottle with a cigarette butt. It happens when people are on the go. They are drinking and eating on the go. They will not take that packaging home to be recycled. It ends up in our bins and is not recycled. Our litter is not recycled and it ends up being incinerated or as litter.

Economic incentives work. We have seen this with the plastic bag levy and we call for economic incentives to work again.