Ireland’s recycling rate has not improved for a decade, while waste continues to grow

A new report published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has revealed that Ireland’s recycling rate has not improved in a decade, while annual waste generation has grown by more than 20 per cent in the same period.

The Circular Economy and Waste Statistics Highlights Report 2022 indicates that Ireland generated 15.7 million tonnes of waste in 2022, which represents a decrease on 2021 when a figure of 17.6 million tonnes was recorded. Overall, the EPA says that our figures are going in the wrong direction when compared to this time ten years ago.

David Flynn, director of the Office of Environmental Sustainability in the EPA, has described Ireland’s progress towards a circular economy as “stalling”.

“Current measures to prevent waste, to promote reuse and to encourage recycling are not enough to meet mandatory municipal waste and plastic packaging targets,” he said.

“The challenge for Ireland is to reverse these trends and significantly reduce waste production and increase reuse and recycling. Strong implementation of existing policies and the introduction of new measures that support investment in new circular economy infrastructure will help move us away from a wasteful linear economy.”

The report shows that over the last 10 years Ireland’s recycling rate has stagnated and mandatory targets for municipal and plastic packaging are at a high risk of not being met.

Ireland’s municipal waste recycling rate is at 41 per cent, with a requirement to be at 55 per cent by 2025. In addition, while recycling of packaging waste is at 60 per cent, this must reach 65 per cent by 2025.

In 2022 the rate of plastic packaging recycling was 32 per cent, up from 28 per cent in 2021, but the recycling target for plastic packaging is 50 per cent by 2025.

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Some 82 per cent of construction and demolition waste is recovered, the majority being used in backfilling for land restoration. This is in excess of the 70 per cent recovery rate required.

Meanwhile, the report indicates that construction and demolition waste decreased by 8 per cent to 8.3 million tonnes.

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The report also highlights that Ireland’s capacity to collect and treat waste is vulnerable and underperforming. In 2022, 38 per cent of all municipal waste was exported for treatment.

The total amount of municipal waste is relatively static at 3.2 million tonnes, with 15 per cent disposed to landfill in 2021. Around 43 per cent of municipal waste was treated by energy recovery through incineration.

The number of Irish households with access to a brown bin for food and organic waste in 2022 was 66 per cent. This is a decrease of 3 per cent from 2021.

Total packaging waste remained unchanged at 1.2 million tonnes in 2022; 32 per cent of plastic packaging generated in Ireland in 2022 was recycled, up from 28 per cent in 2021.

A total of 30,680 tonnes of single-use plastic bottles was placed on the market in 2022, representing a collection rate of 49 per cent.