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

As several Members said, this Saturday people throughout the country will be engaging in a campaign - the Sick of Plastic campaign - to call for a change in how we use plastic. It will be led by Friends of the Earth and supported by VOICE Ireland. It will ask people to shop and drop, or to leave their plastic packaging at the shop as a statement of intent in where we need to go. The campaigners will not be alone. As it happens, as part of the national spring clean organised by An Taisce and others and the ongoing clean-ups that take place, there will be a huge clean-up along the canals in this city and, I am sure, County Roscommon. Canal clean-ups have been occurring for years and are very successful. In my locality we will be going along the River Dodder. Dodder Action does work pretty much every month, but the big clean-up will be this Saturday. People will go out to get plastic out of the environment.

Anyone who wants evidence that we have a problem will see that the River Dodder is awash with plastic. Owing to the heavy storms, all of the litter upriver has been washed down in the past month. Therefore, every low-lying branch along the river is coated like tinsel on a Christmas tree, except with waste plastic, which we will take off. It is a slow, dirty job but a rewarding one. Having done the clean-up for a few years, I realise people are more conscious about protecting their local environment and deeply concerned. That is why they understand we need to treat plastics differently.

As Deputy Gino Kenny said, people such as Sir David Attenborough are showing the significant consequences of plastic waste, not only in the River Dodder in my area but also in the marine environment and the rest of the natural environment. According to European plastics reports, 85% of beach litter is plastic. It is worse in the ocean because the materials do not break down in it. They break down into smaller parts but do not decompose. They do not break down for hundreds of years. The smaller parts which become even smaller as a result of abrasion get into the food chain, about which there is increasing scientific concern and to which Sir David Attenborough pointed. It calls for immediate action to stop us from using plastics.

On the related issue of climate change, for every 1 kg of plastics we use 6 kg of greenhouse gases are emitted. I refer to the energy and source materials used. Plastic is oil based. What is occurring must stop rapidly.

Last but not least, people are exercised by this issue and joining the Sick of Plastic campaign because they understand what is occurring. In one part of the world, be it the Middle East, Venezuela or North Dakota, oil is being drilled at a huge cost, in energy terms, and polluting the water. It is then being shipped to the other side of the earth to be turned into a plastic pellet which is then shipped to another location where it is turned into a plastic container. It is then shipped to another location where it is turned into a product for wrapping or a cup. It is then shipped right back across the world to Dublin, for example, where it sits in my hand for about three or four minutes, after which it is done. There is considerable movement of materials backwards and forwards. Unfortunately, according to the European Union, only 30% of single-use plastic is recyclable. Ireland is not very different in that regard. The waste is such that only 5% of the economic value is retained. As the European policy paper states, in this process there is waste in the order of €70 billion to €105 billion, in addition to the destruction of the planet. Everyone is now copping on and saying it has to stop. That is why there is not only an EU plastics strategy but also a circular-economy strategy.

When we dump our plastic, we ship it back to China. It is contaminated. Because the Chinese environment has become desperately polluted, the Chinese have said they will take no more. This system has to change, which is why people are looking for action. It is not rocket science. It is difficult in the sense that it means changing our entire systems, but we should remember the age-old adage that we should reduce, reuse and recycle. Reducing, the first and most important principle, is the easiest. The best way to reduce the amount of plastic used is to ban it. In our legislation which we presented almost a year ago there is a provision to ban the likes of plastic straws. I am sorry, but we just do not need them. As Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett said, it is not a difficult choice. It is a matter of saying, "Sorry; they are gone." The same applies to plastic forks. Fair play to the Ceann Comhairle in that regard. He has been instrumental in helping us to make some small but not insignificant changes in Leinster House. For years in the canteen there were plastic forks which were used just once for two minutes to eat a slice of cheesecake, which probably stays on the hips a long time, as they say. Where does the fork go? At least, there is now a wooden fork which will not be in the environment decomposing for several hundred years. It will decompose in several weeks. The same applies to microbeads which were referred to by Deputy Sean Sherlock. Making a similar decision on their use would be an immediate, easy way to reduce the amount of plastic in the environment.

The Conscious Cup campaign recognises that it is not very difficult to have a refund scheme for cups. One would have a bamboo cup. We have been using some that can be used for as many times as one wants. A cultural change is required, but it can be effected. Twenty years ago no one was using throwaway, single-use materials. Therefore, it is not impossible for us to change. It is not impossible to move away from using plastic bottles altogether. People are doing so in Trinity College Dublin. They are making really ambitious plans because the college is a contained area. The Trinity plastic-free campus campaign has done a brilliant job in testing the idea that we may not need so much plastic and that we could use water fountains and recycle, for example.

We need to be radically more ambitious about recycling. It starts with the likes of a deposit refund scheme for plastic bottles, which is also part of the legislation we presented last year. The Minister asked about the rate. To a certain extent, the legislation gives the Department flexibility because it is best placed to make the decision. It gives time for implementation. I suggest a rate of 20 cent per bottle, similar to the rate it seems that the UK Government wants to introduce later this year. It is not out of kilter and would offer people a real incentive. If one was to do this, one would achieve a 95% rate of return and recycling, as Deputy Gino Kenny mentioned. One would have high-quality recycling material and could develop a local industry, rather than shipping material to China. It is not rocket science and not untested. It was done across Europe. It is about to be done in the United Kingdom and it is being done in America. We can do it here.

On Deputy Thomas P. Broughan's point, the Department might state we have not engaged in enough analysis. I am sorry, but to my mind we have. We are using the findings of EU analysis. We brought over Dr. Dominic Hogg from Eunomia. He has been a leading expert adviser to a number of international organisations, including the European Union. He set out in detail in our committee hearings how we could proceed and how it made economic sense. It is not very expensive. In fact, it would save money. If the system was designed well, it would help smaller retailers and give footfall back to them. It is ready to go. It is to be presented to the committee pretty soon.

This is an important issue. There was a good news story today. At a meeting of the finance committee the Department of Finance agreed to a money message for Deputy Thomas Pringle’s Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill. It is not what I would want; I would want a stronger, Bill but it got through Committee Stage today and will proceed through Report Stage. It is about to be enacted. It is the first chink in the armour in terms of the control of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform over the ability of this House to legislate. I hope the second chink will be made by the Waste Reduction Bill which will be considered in a couple of weeks. We have the numbers here. It is very practical and simple; it is not difficult legislation. We will not opt for a ban on coffee cups because there is a legal difficulty, but we will opt for a levy instead. It is an easy amendment for us to make and it is coming at the Government. If it refuses to issue a money message, it will need to outline the grounds for its decision.

Must we conduct more research? Must we go back to the Library and Research Service, which has done a good job with us in the past year, and conduct more analysis before we can make a political decision, which is what we are entitled to do? We are at the centre of our democracy and we can say we are sick of plastic and that we will legislate to help the country to become good at recycling, reducing and reusing. That is why our Bill is one element in a series, including the clean up. If anyone, including the Ceann Comhairle, is in Dublin next Saturday, I will be at Donnybrook bridge at 10 a.m. to clean up the River Dodder and we might head on to the canal from there.

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