Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 161: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the fact that an industry based proposal in the jewellery and watches sector to meet the obligations under the recycling regulations has not been approved; the perceived defects in the proposal by the industry; his estimate of the extra compliance costs that would be imposed on the industry by requiring an alternative external system to meet the obligations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32718/08]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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European Parliament and Council Directive 2002/96/EC on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) as amended by European Parliament and Council Directive 2003/108/EC of 8 December 2003 was transposed into Irish Law on 5 July 2005 by the Waste Management (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Regulations 2005. The WEEE take back scheme, which came into effect on 13 August 2005, has been a remarkable success. 37,812 tonnes of household WEEE was collected during 2007, a 20% increase over the 2006 collection rate. This represents approximately 6.7 million electrical and electronic products or 8.7kg per inhabitant. This is over double the 4 Kgs target the WEEE Directive requires Ireland to achieve by the end of 2008 and indicates widespread public support for the scheme.

Implementation of the Directive involved the establishment in 2005, by producers, of three new structures: two compliance schemes to fund the recovery of the waste equipment — WEEE Ireland Ltd. and the European Recycling Platform (ERP), who are responsible for the recycling of all household WEEE deposited at designated collection points including civic amenity facilities and retail outlets and ensuring that recovered WEEE is recycled in an environmentally sound manner, and for putting in place tracking and auditing systems for materials recovery in line with the requirements of the Directive, and an independent National Producer Registration body — WEEE Register — whose job it is to register all producers of electronic and electrical equipment, determine market share, and approve visible Environmental Management Costs (EMCs) where these are displayed by producers.

To avail of synergies with the implementation of the European Parliament and Council Directive 2006/66/EC on batteries and accumulators and waste batteries and accumulators, the Waste Management (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Regulations were recently amended, following consultation through the WEEE Monitoring Group, by the Waste Management (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) (Amendment) Regulations 2008. Numerous representative bodies, including the Irish Jewellers Association, were invited to submit comments to my Department on these regulations before they were made. These new regulations do not impose any significant constraints on industries in their efforts to maintain compliance — on the contrary they will help streamline the compliance process.

Whereas the WEEE Regulations do not require an alternative external system to enable producers and/or distributors fulfil their obligation, they do contain enabling provisions to allow producer groups to apply for approval to establish collective compliance schemes. Producers, however, will not establish additional bodies to aid compliance unless it will bring cost savings. No application from any group representing the jewellery and watches sector has been received by my Department; however my Department is prepared, if requested, to meet with representatives of this and other sectors.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Question 162: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the local authorities that have provided a farm plastic collection and drop service in 2008; the local authorities that have not provided such a service or do not intend to provide such a service in 2008; the reason such a service was not or will not be offered in 2008; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32725/08]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Question 163: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government his plans to extend the farm plastic collection scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32726/08]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 162 and 163 together.

A successful Producer Responsibility Initiative has been in operation since mid 1997 in relation to farm film/silage bale wrap. Producers — i.e. manufacturers and importers of farm film/bale wrap — pay a levy of €127 per tonne of farm plastic placed on the market to a compliance scheme, the Irish Farm Films Producers Group (IFFPG), who in turn are required to meet targets for the recovery and recycling of farm plastics. IFFPG estimate that over 80,000 tonnes of farm plastics were collected for recycling since its inception in mid 1997.

In the period up to 2005, demand for the service provided by IFFPG grew to exceed the capacity of the scheme. Consideration was given by my Department in early 2006, in consultation with various stakeholders including farming organisations, to various mechanisms to address the need to ensure that sufficient resources were available to the scheme to meet future demand for collections while at the same time dealing fairly with accumulations of farm plastics on farms across the country. Following these consultations, my predecessor announced in May 2006 that IFFPG could derive an additional income from weight-based collection charges. This was aimed at improving the operational efficiency of the scheme by incentivising the presentation of clean, dry plastic by farmers. The effect of the introduction of a charge has been to ensure that supply of collections of farm plastics to farmers can match demand on an ongoing basis and to improve the quality of the material being collected. In addition, IFFPG have also introduced a labelling system to improve traceability of levied plastic which in turn will support compliance with the Waste Management (Farm Plastics) Regulations 2001.

To address the issue of accumulated backlogs of farm plastic on farms in 2005, designated facilities were provided on a temporary basis by local authorities where farmers could deposit stockpiled farm plastic free of charge. These once-off free collections allowed farmers the opportunity to deposit any accumulated plastic purchased under the terms of the original scheme, which was based upon free farm-to-farm collections. In total, some 35,000 tonnes of materials were collected at these temporary facilities over the period 2006 to 2007.

The operation of temporary bring facilities has proved popular with farmers and earlier this year, in consultation with the Irish Farmers' Association, the IFFPG developed a calendar of some 130 collections nationwide where farmers could deposit bale wrap and silage wrap. These collections have now commenced, will run through to the autumn and are based on weight-based charges. Farmers who produce the aforesaid labels indicating that levied plastic is being presented for recycling will avail of a substantially reduced collection fee by virtue of the fact that the producer levy is being used to subsidise all legitimately declared farm plastic.

Farmyard collections are still available from IFFPG but as they are more expensive to operate, they involve a higher charge. Information on the dates, locations and fees for collections are available on IFFPG's website, www.farmplastics.ie. In summary, very few local authorities provided a drop service in spring 2008. This was a once off solution to the problems outlined above and there are no plans to extend the scheme further.