John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

There were some 1.2 million tonnes of waste recycled in 2006, of which approximately 75% was exported. Approximately 36% of municipal waste is now recycled as compared to the national target of 35% recycling by 2013.

The Government's policy statement, Preventing and Recycling Waste — Delivering Change, identified a lack of sustainable and economically attractive markets and outlets for recyclable materials as one of the main barriers to an improved and sustainable national recycling performance. The significant cost and effort associated with the segregation, collection, sorting, pre-treatment and reprocessing of recyclable materials demands that markets be developed to realise the full resource value of all recyclable materials that are reclaimed. To address these issues I am providing funding of €13 million to implement the recommendations set out in the market development programme for waste resources 2007.

The market development programme will promote sustainable demand for recovered materials and support the achievement of economies of scale in the production of products made from recycled materials. It will also identify new applications and markets for recyclable material and secondary recycled products.

We must accept that our relative size will place some limits on the scope for a comprehensive recycling infrastructure. However, I believe the investment now being made in this programme will enable us to be somewhat more self-sufficient and will give us some degree of insulation from the types of difficulties now being experienced in the international markets for recyclates.

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