Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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203. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government in view of the recent figures showing that 1.2 million tonnes, 42 percent, of municipal waste is being exported, and that Ireland is at risk of missing its 2025 recycling targets, if he will provide a breakdown of waste exports in 2024 and to date in 2025, by county, including the volume from Cork City and Cork County; the principal reasons for outsourcing (cost, capacity, facility location) and the impact on regional processing infrastructure; and the steps being taken to invest in local/regional waste-processing facilities (including in Munster), so as to reduce reliance on exports and strengthen the domestic circular-economy. [59193/25]

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the competent authority for the collation of national waste statistics and reports annually on Ireland’s performance against a range of European waste directive and regulations, as well as waste exports. These are used for reporting on Ireland’s performance in meeting its legal obligations for policy and waste management planning purposes and to inform the general public. This data is available at the EPA website: www.epa.ie/our-services/monitoring--assessment/waste/national-waste-statistics/

The National Transfrontier Shipment Office maintain records of waste exports and registers containing details of waste exported by year which are available on their website - www.dublincity.ie/waste-and-recycling/national-tfs-office

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 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 and 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.
• The introduction of a Deposit and Return Scheme (DRS) for certain plastic bottles and aluminium cans.