EPA - Ireland's Environment, An Integrated Assessment - 2020

Chapter 9: Waste Topic Box 9.5 Green and Social Public Procurement In 2019, the National Waste Collection Permit Office procured the delivery, assembly and installation of upcycled furniture for its new office in Tullamore. Community Resources Network Ireland led a consortium of ten social enterprises to complete the project and fitted the office with 97 items of upcycled furniture, saving approximately 2.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Seeking reused and upcycled furniture through procurement has the potential to prevent waste and also support organisations delivering circular economy activities in Ireland. (Source: Community Resources Network Ireland) Table 9.9  Plastic bag and landfill levies collected (€ million), 2012-2019 (Source: CSO, 2020) LEVY 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 a Plastic bag levy 14 15 13 12 9 7 6 6 Landfill levy 52 43 34 34 48 37 19 12 a Provisional figure. Environmental Levies Levies encourage better waste disposal practices and deter overconsumption. There are environmental taxes on disposal of waste to landfill and consumption of certain plastic bags. In 2019, €6 million was collected from the plastic bag levy and €12 million was collected from the landfill levy (Table 9.9). In the period 2004-2019, the maximum amount collected under the landfill levy was €52 million in 2012 and the maximum under the plastic bag levy was €27 million in 2008 (CSO, 2020). The European Commission’s Environmental Implementation Review recommended that Ireland introduce new economic instruments to promote prevention and make reuse and recycling more economically attractive (EC, 2019). In 2019, the government held a public consultation on the proposed introduction of a waste recovery levy and coffee cup levy and increases in the existing plastic bag and landfill levies (DCCAE, 2019d). A Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy has stated that levies will be introduced on disposable coffee cups and also that a new waste recovery levy of €5 per tonne will be introduced to incentivise recycling over energy recovery and backfilling. Levies for virgin plastic usage, cold drinks cups and food containers are also proposed in the new national waste policy. 245