Results 21-40 of 2,753 for speaker:Ossian Smyth

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....

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

Ossian Smyth: The circularity gap report that is coming out this summer will cover it. There is also the durability of products, the information given to consumers which in the future will show durability ratings for products listed on a very simple scale of a,b,c,d,e,f,g, showing how long it is expected that a product will last and what its lifetime is so that consumers can make informed decisions. For...

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

Ossian Smyth: One of the reasons construction and demolition waste goes to landfill in Ireland is because it is exempt from landfill levies. The landfill levy is €85 a tonne and most of the material going into landfill now is exempt. The reason it was exempt until now was that it was not possible to get an EPA determination in a reasonable period of time to be able to use it on another site. That...

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

Ossian Smyth: Deputy Bruton said he did not have a long time to read the document and that he could not see targets within it. In fact, three targets occur to me. There is a target for textiles, where 20% textiles bought by the public sector should be from recycled fibres. There is a target that 10% of food bought by the public sector should be organic. In addition, the public sector should favour...

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

Ossian Smyth: The person who actually buys the goods is responsible. In other words, the contracting authority or procurement person in that particular public sector body is responsible for following the rules. Among the reasons such persons do not follow the rules are that they do not know how to do so, it is just not easy or they are used to doing it the old way. That is why the Office of Government...

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

Ossian Smyth: The data we are collecting is improving all the time. For example, every time a product is purchased from a framework, we get the data back on it. We are requiring more data from people bidding for contracts at the time they bid for them. We are collecting a lot more data. The OGP does have a lot more information now and I am focusing on that. I am happy to go into more details on what I...

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

Ossian Smyth: Two rounds of consultations took place for the deposit return scheme. There were thousands of submissions, including from disability groups and individuals with disabilities. The Re-turn organisation also consulted the National Disability Authority directly to see how best to structure the scheme. In the regulations, as the Deputy said, at her request I included a rule that the retailers...

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

Ossian Smyth: Through the National Disability Authority, as I understand it.

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

Ossian Smyth: There are two things in the regulations I issued, one of which is a statutory instrument that determines the rules under which the scheme has to operate. That includes a rule that the machines should be accessible. The Re-turn Ireland organisation itself also has rules for its retailers. It made up its own list of rules for how retailers have to operate, which is not statutory or is not a...

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

Ossian Smyth: I do not think accessibility is a binary thing, so for-----

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

Ossian Smyth: It is not that the machine is either accessible or not accessible. There are many people with disabilities who are using the scheme successfully. One of the things I have done has been to speak to people in wheelchairs directly and to people who are blind who have used the scheme. I have taken their suggestions on board, for example, that staff should have better training and be able to...

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

Ossian Smyth: I can certainly look at the Deputy's suggestions around there being no sound from the machine or that it does not have Braille markings on the outside. I can look at this. From talking to people who are blind, however, it is a challenge to use a supermarket in general.