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

On single use plastics in supermarkets and the requirement for organic vegetable producers to wrap things in plastic, at the end of the day the Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022 included a requirement to analyse and report on the use of plastics in supermarkets. That work is under way. There is a timeline for it in the Act. When it is ready I will be interested to see the proposals around it. If we can reduce their use, it will save money for suppliers, shops and customers.

The Senator asked whether plastics are exported or to what extent they are managed in Ireland. There is very little reprocessing capacity in Ireland. There is a lot of segregation. When the green bin is taken away, there are lots of machines and conveyor belts that segregate and sort the waste into all the different categories. However, typically it is baled and the raw plastic material is put into packing containers and sold to facilities abroad that can take raw plastic, reprocess it into plastic pellets and then turn it into new products. We have a little of it. For example, Shabra Plastics and Recycling in County Monaghan can do reprocessing, I think Limerick Polymers Production is working on it and I think Beauparc is working on a facility in Portlaoise.

One of the things that will happen as a result of the deposit return scheme, the 1.9 billion bottles and cans being reprocessed, is that it will create a market for a really clean, well-segregated stream of materials. I want to see more higher level activity going on in Ireland, including the reprocessing of the material.

The myth that everything we put in the bin gets sent to a hole in China is strong and it is a good excuse for not segregating waste and not caring. For that reason, I have visited every form of recycling and segregation facility I can to trace where the waste goes and see that plastic film is being reprocessed. There was a story that plastic film was all being burnt in an incinerator. It is not. It is being reprocessed in places like Limerick Polymers Production. Plastic has huge value. It would not make sense to throw it in a hole in China. It is often possible to get €1,000 per tonne for it. The idea that all this material is being segregated and not being recycled is simply untrue. The materials that are being separated - aluminium is worth more than €1,000 per tonne - often have high post segregation value. There would be no reason to dispose of them. The only way to convince people is to show them where it goes or to have recycling companies in communities that are buying and making use of these products so people can see they are being reused.