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

One of the things we did last year was that, on 1 July, I brought in a rule requiring all commercial facilities to have a biowaste bin. Up to then, a large proportion of businesses simply had one residual waste bin and were not segregating their waste at all. They are all now required to segregate. Second, on 1 January, I made it mandatory for all waste collectors to offer brown bins to everybody in the country. Everybody in Ireland should be offered the ability to put waste into a brown bin and have it collected separately.

As the Deputy said, FoodCloud has done something amazing. It has tried to use technology to link up people who have excess food with people who require it. It has done this through charities and at retail level. It has also done it at farm level. It has developed food products based on that.

The Deputy asked whether we have looked at what the French have done. I am definitely looking at the experience in France with its rules on packaging in supermarkets. The French have outlawed some forms of plastic packaging on food. What we are now analysing is whether that has increased or decreased food waste. By not wrapping things, you run the risk of products going off sooner. If you do not wrap things in plastic, is the alternative product used to wrap the produce going to have an effect? Food donation and distribution is one of the main things in the food waste prevention roadmap. Obviously, a lot of food is already being donated by retailers through FoodCloud. There are also a number of apps you can get on your phone through which you can see which retailers in your area have extra food. That is of clear benefit to all. It is expensive to dispose of food.

We are also developing the biomethane and anaerobic digestion sectors. We have a national target to reach 5.7 TW of electricity generated from biomethane by 2030.

That is a policy being developed by the Department of agriculture in combination with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. Biogas will be injected back into the grid for use. DHL is using biogas to power its trucks for long-distance delivery of goods throughout the country, which is significant because it is the largest shipping agency and trucking company in the country. Those are a few things to give the Deputy some information.