Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We will ban microbeads. It would have been more helpful if this could have been done at a co-ordinated European level rather than a domestic level but we are determined to bring forward legislation in this area to ban microbeads.

With regard to China, a reason that the Chinese closed the market was the scale of contamination. We are trying to reduce the contamination and that is why we have, as of last November, a uniform recycling list across the country. Whether one uses a green bin or a blue bin in different parts of the country, the same recyclables go into it. We are trying, through recycling ambassadors, to encourage people to present the recyclable material in a clean manner. The Deputy is right that the priority must be not to generate the waste in the first place or if we are generating that waste, for it to be in a manner that can be easily recycled. I am taking this up with my colleagues on the Council of Ministers, both privately and publicly, and directly with the Commission. I hope that we will make progress in this area in the short term.

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