Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)
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Question 73: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the communications and meetings his Department have had recently with representatives of the newspaper industry in relation to the establishment of a producer responsibility recycling scheme (details supplied). [36687/06]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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A Joint Industry Taskforce, comprising the Regional Newspapers Association of Ireland (RNAI), Irish Retail Newsagents Association (IRNA), Newspread and Eason Wholesale Ltd, and co-ordinated by National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI) was established and has been engaged in negotiations with my Department. The aim of these discussions with the stakeholders, which are continuing, is to develop a producer responsibility initiative for the recovery and recycling of newspapers and magazines.

John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 74: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government his views on whether a 50% household recycling rate can be achieved here; when such a target could be met; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36629/06]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Recycling is a significant element of the Government's overall integrated policy framework on waste management — which is based on the internationally recognised waste hierarchy — prioritising waste prevention, minimisation, reuse, recycling, energy recovery and the environmentally sound disposal of residual waste which cannot be recycled or recovered.

This significant emphasis on recycling is reflected in the 1998 policy statement Changing our Ways which provided a national policy framework for the adoption and implementation by local authorities of strategic waste management plans under which specific national objectives and targets would be achieved. Specifically, Changing our Ways set ambitious recycling targets to be achieved over a fifteen year timescale — i.e. by 2013 — including a recycling target of 35% of municipal waste recycling and a diversion of 50% of household waste from landfill.

National waste statistics are collated and published by the EPA. In its National Waste Database Report for 1998, the EPA estimated that 166,684 tonnes (9%) of municipal (household and commercial) waste was recovered for recycling in that year. In its corresponding 2004 Report, the EPA estimated that the recovery rate of municipal waste had increased to 918,995 tonnes(33.6%). Similarly, the EPA 2004 Report states that 295,134 tonnes (19.5%) of household waste were recycled in 2004 compared with 37,518 tonnes (3.2%) in 1998.

The dramatic increases in recycling rates for household waste have been driven by successful Government policies including:

the provision of segregated collections for dry recyclables to over 540,000 households by 2003;

the continued expansion of the numbers of bring facilities. The number of bring banks grew from 837 in 1998 to 1,929 by 2004 while the number of civic amenity sites grew from 30 to 69 over the same period;

the roll out of pay-by-use by public and private sector waste operators in recent years; and

raising awareness through campaigns such as the Race Against Waste.

In order to provide further impetus in this area, a range of further measures have also been, or are in the process of being, undertaken:

successful producer responsibility initiatives are in place to support the achievement of recycling targets for certain waste materials e.g the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) scheme introduced in August 2005 has lead to a five-fold increase in recycling of this waste stream while the European Union set 2005 target of 50% recovery rate for packaging waste was exceeded in 2003 and reached 56.4% in 2004;

the National Strategy on Biodegradable Waste was published in April 2006. In 2004, almost three quarters of municipal (household and commercial) waste sent to landfill was biodegradable. The Strategy sets out measures aimed at the separate collection, recovery and recycling of biodegradable waste with a view to achieving the progressive diversion of biodegradable municipal waste from landfill by 2016 to 35% of the amount of biodegradable municipal waste generated in the baseline year of 1995; and

the Market Development Group was established in 2004 to oversee the development of a Market Development Programme which will identify new applications and markets for recyclable material and secondary recycled products. The Group has been asked to identify barriers to the use and marketing of recyclable material and to develop strategies to address these. The Market Development Programme is being finalised at present for publication later this year.

I am confident on the basis of the measures outlined above, and the enthusiasm that exists among the general public for recycling, that the target set out in Changing Our Ways in 1998 of 35% recyclers of municipal waste and 50% diversion of household waste from landfill by 2013 will be achieved.