James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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75. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if under the current waste management framework or otherwise consideration has been given to mandating that the waste management companies add a collection for glass bottle waste to their operations, similar to the way in which compostable waste, recyclable waste and general waste are currently separated and collected from the home; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49016/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Under waste management legislation, collectors of household waste are required to provide receptacles for the collection of residual, recyclable and food waste, in line with the requirements of their waste collection permit issued under the Waste Management Act 1996 (No. 10 of 1996), the Waste Management (Collection Permit) Regulations 2007, (S.I. 820 of 2007) as amended, and the European Union (Household Food Waste and Bio-waste) Regulations 2015. There is no obligation currently on collectors of household waste under waste management legislation to provide a collection service for glass or glass bottles.

Glass is a packaging material under the EU Packaging Directive.  This Directive sets recovery and recycling targets for all packaging material.  The target for glass is 60% by weight.  Ireland has a very successful producer responsibility scheme in place, operated by Repak, for dealing with packaging.  The scheme has consistently exceeded the targets set by the Directive with 88% of glass reported as recycled in the most recent statistics produced by the Environmental Protection Agency.

My Department has also provided grant assistance of over €200 million to local authorities since the year 2000 towards the development of waste recycling facilities and there are over 2,200 bring banks and 100 recycling centres across the country, which support high recycling levels for glass.