Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State and his family are welcome. I wish to raise an issue around the circular economy. The term "circular economy" will become one of those new buzzwords like "climate emergency" and "sustainable" everything. I want it to be explained in a very clear way so we do not think that if we keep mentioning the word "sustainable" it will make a difference. The circular economy is where we look at the amount of waste we are producing, be it from clothes, cars, rubbish or food, and do something about it.

Recently, I had the great pleasure of going to Ballymun to visit one of the most inspiring places I have been to in an awfully long time, the Rediscovery Centre. This building was repurposed thanks to a great woman, Dr. Sarah Miller, and her staff. They turned an old district heating system into a place that has training and sees the repair of bikes, clothes, furniture and paint. It is an inspirational place. As we move towards the challenges we face around climate, and the biodiversity crisis we are in now, I urge every Member in the Government and the Opposition to go to this place and bring back their inspiration to their local authority. I have since engaged with my local authority in looking to set up something similar. Not only can we take what has been done at the Rediscovery Centre, which is completely inspiring, we could take it one step further, link in with the education and training boards and get certification for the people who are being trained up. They can then on go to create green jobs. That is where it is at, at this stage. It is not about buying another reusable water bottle or green product. That is still consumerism. We have to look past that and look at degrowth and the circular economy. These kinds of places could result in jobs, with access to business supports.

Irish households create 14 million tonnes of waste every year. In Ireland, we send 63,000 tonnes of textiles to landfill per year. Almost half of what we donate to charity shops and clothes banks enters the global textile trade, often with devastating consequences for the countries on which they are offloaded. Per head of population, Ireland is among the highest waste producers in Europe. We have to buy less stuff and we have to try to reuse and upcycle all we have. That is where we at, at this stage. Everything is coming from petrol, precious metals or precious ores in the ground that take a lot of carbon to produce. Ireland, per head of population, is among the highest waste producers in Europe. Every year, our waste would fill Croke Park to the top of the stands. It is estimated that almost 14 million tonnes of waste was generated in Ireland in 2018, across all sectors and households, corresponding to 2.9 tonnes per person.

Producing plastic products through recycling plastic reduces energy requirements by 66%. I cannot believe we are still talking about recycling, but it is about reducing, reusing and recycling. We have to take it seriously and we have to do more about it. As Government representatives, we have to take this seriously, look at what we can do and support things such as the Rediscovery Centre being replicated throughout Ireland.

I ask the House to request the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Ossian Smyth, who has done a lot of work on this, to come to the Chamber to better inform us of the plans for, and progress he has made on, the circular economy in Ireland.