Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Plastic waste is an emotive topic and rightly provokes passionate debate. People are concerned about the proliferation of plastics in our lives and the impacts, known and unknown, of plastic leaking into our water and food systems. Plastic, however, is not bad in its own right. The development of plastic has facilitated enormous advances across engineering, human health and energy efficiency. Lightweight and durable, plastic even plays a role in reducing the carbon footprint of transport and food production. However, we need to be selective about how we use plastic. We need to ensure we use it only where necessary, reuse it where possible and recycle for further and repeated use.

Tackling the negative impacts of plastic on our environment is a national and global challenge. The Government’s priority is to work collectively and internationally to protect our environment but to ensure we also maximise our potential for meaningful and sustainable improvement at home. As a small country in a global economy, our membership of the EU gives us a seat at a table where internationally significant policies are developed. In recent years, the EU has rolled out innovative new plans and strategies to help transition our economies from a linear model of take-make-dispose to a circular model where nothing goes to waste and resources are properly valued through efficient use and reuse. The EU’s circular economy action plan recognises the central part that plastics play in a modern economy. The plastics strategy delivered this year was a key deliverable of the action plan and sets out how the European economy can address the challenge of plastic throughout the value chain across its full life cycle.

Central to the strategy is a commitment to work towards ensuring all plastic packaging is recyclable by 2030. Many of the measures recommended in the plastic strategy are well embedded into Irish resource management. These measures include the existing extended producer responsibility schemes run by Repak and the Irish Farm Films Producers Group, the landfill levy, the plastic bag levy, as well as robust enforcement around illegal dumping and landfilling.

More needs to be done, however. The new recycling targets agreed earlier this year as part of the EU’s circular economy legislative package demand we raise our game once again. Ireland has come a long way in recent years to become one of Europe’s top performers in waste management. We need to build on this success in an informed and deliberate manner. Rushing to introduce a deposit and refund scheme, as proposed in the Private Members’ motion, without a considered basis for action risks jeopardising the progress made.

Business is also playing its part in this process. As Ireland’s approved compliance scheme for packaging, Repak has overseen growth in all aspects of its activity, membership numbers, tonnages recycled and recovered, as well as supporting its members in more efficient use of packaging and preventing waste. Repak recently launched a plastic packaging strategy for its members. The strategy sets out a response to the challenge of doubling the recycling of plastic packaging by 2030.

Similarly, we must support consumers in their efforts to do the right thing around plastic recycling. The national recycling list awareness campaigns and recycling ambassador programme help ensure these valuable materials are used as a resource for our communities and economy rather than being wasted. People have demonstrated a strong interest in doing the right thing and knowing how to do it. The national recycling list has put together a list of everyday household items suitable for recycling and will be accepted by every waste collection company throughout the State. Not only does this campaign help improve the quality and, therefore, the value of our recyclate stock, this campaign is also empowering people to become active participants in our recycling society.

As referred to in the Minister’s opening statement, the first legislative proposal to emerge on foot of the plastics strategy is the proposal for a directive on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment, commonly referred to as the single use plastic, SUP, proposal. This is an ambitious and far-reaching proposal which aims to tackle the ten most prevalent single use plastic products found in Europe’s marine environment, as well as lost and abandoned fishing gear. The proposal provides for the banning of certain single use plastics and the setting of targets for reducing the consumption of others. It places clear obligations on producers and industry to contribute towards the costs of waste management, awareness raising and the clean-up of certain items. While it points member states towards deposit and refund schemes as a means of achieving higher collection rates of plastics, it is not prescriptive and allows member states devise solutions suitable for their national territory.

The proposed national study into how Ireland can achieve higher collection and recycling rates for plastic and aluminium drinks containers specifically has to be central in informing our next steps. Talks around the implementation of the single use plastics legislation at European level are progressing rapidly, driven in no small part by the overwhelming desire of European citizens for EU governments to take effective action now. Ultimately, industry, government and consumers alike must all work together to tackle the problem now for the sake of future generations.

In the area of marine plastic, my colleague, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, will be bringing in a Bill to prohibit the manufacturing, selling, importing or exporting of cosmetics, personal care products, detergents and scouring agents containing plastic microbeads which are liable to be washed into wastewater systems with the potential to reach our rivers, lakes and seas. This is to be welcomed.

The Government encourages a high level of political and citizen engagement in matters relating to the environment. Ultimately, it is the environment that sustains us all and we are all stakeholders in its protection.

While Deputy Ryan’s Bill is well intended and genuinely motivated, we all need to pull in the one direction. The Government intends to build on our strong waste performance record to achieve and exceed the targets set down in European legislation. Any policy changes to be introduced need to be evidence based and soundly costed. Making fundamental changes to our existing collection system may undermine the achievements made to date. The Government understands the urgency behind the improvements required and the Minister has committed to ensuring a speedy conclusion to the deliberations required.

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