Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy (WAPCE), Ireland’s National Waste Policy for the period 2020 to 2025, sets out an overall policy and regulatory approach to support improved waste performance in Ireland.

A number of measures outlined in the WAPCE have already been successfully introduced, including the following:

• The revision of the list of material accepted in the missed dry recyclable bin to now include soft plastics.
• The introduction of incentivised waste collection charging in the commercial waste sector.
• The introduction of an initial €10 per tonne Waste Recovery Levy on municipal waste recovery operations in Ireland and on the export of municipal waste for recovery abroad.
• An increase of €10 per tonne on the existing Landfill Levy from €75 per tonne to €85 per tonne.
• The expansion of the household “brown” bin collection service to now make it mandatory as part of a waste collection service for all households.
• Continued efforts to drive behavioural change through education and awareness campaigns.
• Ensuring that waste enforcement activities are focused on maximising the proper segregation and recycling of municipal waste through making household and commercial waste a National Waste Enforcement Priority.
• The introduction of a Deposit and Return Scheme (DRS) for certain plastic bottles and aluminium cans.

The ongoing phased delivery of the remaining WAPCE measures, in conjunction with required waste enforcement actions and education and awareness campaigns, will ensure we continue to have a major positive impact on our national municipal recycling rates.

In keeping with the polluter pays principle, Extended Producer Responsibility schemes also have a key role in meeting national collection and recycling targets and also in supporting investment to ensure that as much as possible can be recycled and recovered domestically. Both Re-Turn and Repak are working with investors to maximise the recycling of all types of plastic packaging here.

The second Whole of Government Circular Economy Strategy is currently being finalised. This will have a statutory basis, under the Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022 and, in line with the requirements under Section 7 of the Act, will include targets for specific economic sectors that will drive reductions in material resource consumption in addition to increases in the levels of repair and reuse and use of re-usable products and materials.

In 2024, the Department commissioned a ‘circularity gap analysis’, to determine Ireland’s circularity baseline, by analysing how materials flow through the Irish economy. The Circularity Gap Report Ireland indicates that our Circularity Metric stands at 2.7%—meaning that over 97% of the materials flowing through our economy come from virgin sources. The Circularity Gap Report has also shown that whilst Ireland still operates within a linear model, with high material and carbon footprints, advancing the circular economy has transformative potential for the country, and that it is possible to reduce resource use while simultaneously reducing inequality and improving well-being. The Gap Report also demonstrated that transitioning to a more circular society helps decarbonisation, competitiveness and economic security. This evidence base was key to the development of the second Whole-of-Government Circular Economy Strategy.

The Strategy will make the business case for the circular economy while supporting practices such as ecodesign, repair, reuse and remanufacturing. It will provide for incentives that will create a level playing field for circular economy actors, practices and products, and leverage public procurement to create a market for circular products and practices.