Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There are outlets for it, but in order for us to access many of the outlets, we need to present the recyclable material in a clean manner. It is important that householders would rinse out containers before they put them in the recycling bin and present cardboard that is clean. The pizza boxes must now go into the brown bin and not the recycling bin. There is a market for paper. We do not have the paper mills or the plastic recycling facilities. I had a very interesting discussion with two of my colleagues in Canada last week. They have come up with some solutions to get around this. We are exploring those. There are companies looking at providing processing facilities in Ireland. There are processing facilities available in eastern Europe and we are accessing some of them at present. It appears that we must establish a more comprehensive network of processing facilities in Europe. It is about reducing the waste and providing material for recycling in a clean manner and having outlets for it in Europe without having to export it to China. China is still taking some material. Other parts of Asia are taking clean material.