Less than one-third of total plastic packaging waste produced in Ireland was recycled in 2021, according to a new report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
In total, an estimated 413,590 tonnes of carbon dioxide were released into the atmosphere in 2021 due to plastic incineration, according to the EPA. Out of the 373,000 tonnes of waste plastic packaging produced in Ireland, 28 per cent (104,000 tonnes) was recycled with 70 per cent (260,000 tonnes) incinerated for energy recovery.
In 2017, 44 per cent of plastic packaging waste was incinerated. Every kilogram of plastic incinerated contributes an average of 2.7kg of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, according to the report. The State is left with “significant challenges” in meeting the 2025 and 2030 EU recycling targets for plastic of 50 per cent and 55 per cent, says the EPA.
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The report, published on Thursday morning, states that Ireland increased its total waste packaging production to 1.2 million tonnes, but the amount of waste that was recycled dropped by 4 per cent in 2021. According to the EPA, Ireland’s recycling capabilities “cannot keep up” with the total increase in packaging waste being generated, with waste generation increasing three times quicker than recycling figures.
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Some 58 per cent of Ireland’s waste packaging was recycled in 2021, a decrease from the 2020 figure of 62 per cent. Ireland is currently exceeding the EU target of 55 per cent but is behind the 2025 target of 65 per cent.
In 2021, Ireland recorded an increase of 120,243 tonnes (11 per cent) of total packaging waste, continuing the trend of an annual increase since 2016. The amount of waste produced by each individual has also gone up, with the 247kg of waste packaging generated per person in 2021 rising from 225 kg per person in 2020.
While plastic recycling rates were low, in 2021 Ireland achieved high recycling figures for a number of other packaging materials. Some 84 per cent of glass was recycled as was 73 per cent of paper and cardboard, 51 per cent of wood and 58 per cent of metal. These figures place Ireland on track to meet EU recycling targets for 2025 and 2030 for glass, wood and ferrous metal, but the EPA says that “some improvements will be needed” to meet the 2030 target for paper and cardboard, aluminium and plastic.
Of the 1,238,383 tonnes of packaging waste generated in Ireland in 2021, just 18 per cent (225,000) was recycled in the country, mainly glass and wood, says the EPA.
According to the report, Ireland’s packaging increase directly correlates with the country’s gross national income (GNI). Both GNI and packaging production increased significantly in 2021 following the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to the EPA to call for the decoupling of waste generation from economic performance and the “transition to a circular economy”.
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Warren Phelan, manager of the EPA’s circular economy programme, called for “better practices” by householders and businesses when it comes to waste management. “There are significant opportunities to divert good quality materials from the residual bin,” he said.
Mr Phelan expressed hope that new government levies on waste sent for energy recovery, often through incineration, and an increase in the landfill levy “will reward better practices of segregation provided customer charging is appropriately incentivised”.
Mr Phelan also said that the EPA’s focus was on ensuring producers and manufacturers bore the majority of responsibility for producing products with less packaging. “We’re all consumers,” he said. “We’ve all had that feeling of filling up a bin with perfectly good packaging materials that have barely been used.
“We should really be looking at the measures to tackle generation, at more upstream measures. Such as talking to and calling out the producers of packaging, manufacturers, retail outlets that use huge volumes of packaging in their day-to-day business. It’s looking to them for leadership in supply chain shifts, rather than looking at what the individual consumer can do.
“A big area for gain is in reusable packaging. We want to see an extension and growth, that it grows further into the supply chain. People have access to food at a reusable station where there’s no packaging, they fill it up, bring that home and bring the container back. It needs to be normalised and accessible.”
The Department of the Environment has been contacted for comment.
