Results 1-20 of 1,029,316 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Mick Barry OR speaker:Bernard Durkan OR speaker:Ossian Smyth)

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Ossian Smyth: I thank the Chairperson and members for inviting me to this meeting to discuss the current state of play in respect of the circular economy following on from the signing into law of the Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act in 2022. In line with the evolution of EU and UN environmental policy, the waste action plan for a circular economy was published in September 2020. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Ossian Smyth: I thank the Cathaoirleach for acknowledging the progress made on the circular economy and the contributions of my predecessor, who laid much of the groundwork for what I have done. I will start with the hot school meals. The hot school meals programme is a very good thing. It is widely acknowledged to be a positive thing that children can have hot meals at school, particularly in winter....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Ossian Smyth: The deposit return scheme is there to address a problem, namely, not enough of our bottles and cans are being recycled and are ending up in the environment. If the Deputy has ever taken part in a Tidy Towns group and walked along the roads, he will have seen that approximately half of the litter items the group picks up are bottles or cans. Some Tidy Towns groups are quite analytical in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Ossian Smyth: I apologise; I am wasting Deputy O'Sullivan's time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Ossian Smyth: If it takes longer to fill the bin because it is not full of empty bottles and containers, people should have fewer lifts taking place. Many of the bin companies charge per lift or per kilo. People will have a lower volume and a lower weight. The majority of waste collectors now charge by waste or volume rather than a fixed fee. The cost of waste removal should come down.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Ossian Smyth: I am not considering it at present, but if Deputy O'Sullivan wants to make a proposal, I will look at it. Paper bags are biodegradable. If a paper bag is left in a bush or hedge it will return-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Ossian Smyth: I accept that this is absolutely a factor. The vast majority of people now have a habit of having a drawer in their kitchen with plastic bags in it. Before they go to the shops, they fish out some of these reusable plastic bags and refill them. That is how it mostly happens. People can be caught short. There has to be some option for someone who is caught short, but we have substantially...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Ossian Smyth: I substantially agree with the Deputy. Reuse is better than recycling. If we can persuade people to refill plastic bottles with water, that is better than persuading them to bring back the bottles in the first place. For example, the sports clubs, GAA clubs and football clubs informed me that they could have reverse vending machines. They could, but even better than that would be that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Ossian Smyth: No. Germany had an existing reusable bottle scheme before it introduced its deposit return scheme. They wanted to make sure the deposit return scheme did not displace reusable containers, which are obviously better, so they set the up incentives in such a way that people would be better off reusing than engaging in a single use. However, people have the option of doing one or the other....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Ossian Smyth: One thing at a time. There were many options for what I could put into the first version of the deposit return scheme. I could have done glass. I could have opted for Tetra Pak products, etc. I had a million different options, but I wanted a working scheme to launch on the day when it was meant to. I look at other countries that took more than a decade and then did not manage to launch...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Ossian Smyth: Do I agree there should be a ban on single-use plastics?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Ossian Smyth: No. We banned a large number of single-use plastics. If the Deputy is asking should we ban all single-use plastics tomorrow, the answer is "No".

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Ossian Smyth: Should we move towards a ban? Yes, we are doing that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Ossian Smyth: Yes, I am.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Ossian Smyth: The single-use plastics directive, which I hope the Deputy is familiar with, banned the ten most common single-use plastic items that wash up on beaches. Since then, we moved on to cigarette butt filters, which are also single-use plastics. We then moved on to plastics in wet-wipes. We then moved on to single-use plastics in balloons. Really, we are moving through all the different...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Ossian Smyth: The slogan “Reduce, reuse, recycle” does not put those three options on an equal plane. It lists them in the sequential order of which one is best, starting with “reduce”, then “reuse” and then “recycle”. It is a waste hierarchy and it is part of the European waste hierarchy that we follow. The best thing to do is to reduce, that is,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Ossian Smyth: We used to have a bottle deposit scheme for glass. I remember it, although I do not know if the Deputy is younger than me.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Ossian Smyth: I remember it. It applied to lemonade bottles and so on. Those same products were then sold in plastic. Clearly, the technology developed such that it was possible or cheaper to produce them in plastic and then have the plastic bottle thrown away and just make another in a single-use way. It was an example of technology moving forward to allow us to create a very wasteful system. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Ossian Smyth: Those are both reasonable questions. At the moment, we have six approved suppliers for these machines. Most of those suppliers are the international suppliers that will be seen in any other country in the world, and this works in 40 countries so it is well tested. Some 86% of the time, the machines are available, although that means that one time in seven, they are not available. Many of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy: Discussion (30 Apr 2024)

Ossian Smyth: I thank Deputy Bruton. He started by saying his impression of the circular economy strategy is that it is all about waste and levies and that is what he took from my initial statement. He believes I am too focused on waste and waste levies. It is a broader challenge than that. Beyond waste and levies we need to make sure that one can repair things, that there is a strong repair sector....