Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Bill is very welcome. It is both timely and necessary. In the past few weeks people have rightly been concerned about waste charges and their impact on household budgets. As part of that conversation, issues started to arise about how goods were packaged and the superfluous waste with which many households found themselves dealing. We are so used to hearing the words "reduce, reuse and recycle", but we rarely focus in any real sense on the reduce element. One only has to take a quick walk around Leinster House or the block to see that every second person has a disposable coffee cup. Some simple changes could help to address the problem. Increasingly, businesses are taking into account customers' desire to avail of more environmentally sustainable options. It has become something of a badge of honour for many businesses and customers who are environmentally conscious will try to gravitate towards such establishments.

The dearth of information on and the confusion about what can and cannot be recycled are striking. In many cases, it differs, depending on the waste operator in one's area. I recently asked a parliamentary question, the reply to which revealed that ships full of waste containers had been forced to turn back because they had contaminated material on board. I asked what the price was in turning back a shipment and the answer was €13,000. I understand 92 containers were returned last year. It is purely down to people not recycling correctly. I do not believe most of it is done deliberately, but there is a real need for an information campaign as we need consistency across the country. In the context of the measures contained in the Bill, there are some things we could do with technology that would make some of the measures more feasible into the future. We have an opportunity to try to future-proof the legislation. There is a proposal to design digital bottle banks that could be used, incorporating simple printouts and mobile phone technology. We need to think about what is possible. I recall that after a flood event in County Kildare, material was washed onto a particular farm. I walked the land with the farmer and was absolutely astonished by the amount of waste material that had washed onto the land. There were literally skiploads of plastic bottles and the like. That is what is flowing into the sea and it really brought home to me the importance of what we are talking about.

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