Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is growing at 5% per annum. Some 150 million tonnes of that plastic is now in our seas. We are adding a dump truck every minute. We have to stop this and cut out the waste. It is not easy. It takes attention. This is vital to the question of how much people have to pay, because rather than having to pay for all that and work out whether it is recycling, which most of it is not when 40% of that plastic ends up in the dump, we need to start to make it easy for the householder to do the right thing. That is why I make this point, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

Yesterday, I wrote a letter to each of the party leaders and group leaders asking if they would support our Waste Reduction Bill, which does two things that the best international research, such as the New Plastics Economy paper from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, recommends as simple measures in order to start doing the right thing. It proposes the introduction a returned deposit of 10 cent on bottles and containers so that householders, rather than seeing these bottles go out to be dumped, can see them saved, recycled and used again. Second, the Bill proposes a ban on plastic cups. These cups are not recyclable. One would think they were with the logo on them, but they are not. However, there are instead alternatives-----

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