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

Ireland’s Environment – An Integrated Assessment 2020 By-products and End-of-waste The numbers of by-product notifications and end-of-waste applications are increasing. The Waste Framework Directive 2008 introduced provisions for by-products and end-of-waste materials, aiming to keep resources in the economy as part of a circular economy. 32 The by-products provision allows economic operators to decide that a substance or object produced by them is a by-product and not a waste. These decisions must be notified to the EPA, which may decide to agree with the decision or may determine that the material should be considered waste. In excess of 1300 by-product notifications have been made, mostly relating to soil and stone, 33 road planings 34 and other C&D materials. Where the EPA has made decisions, 37 per cent were accepted as a by-product, 33 per cent were determined to be waste and 29 per cent of the decisions were withdrawn. The EPA has published guidance on soil and stone as a by-product, and draft guidance on the preparation and submission of by-product notifications will be finalised in 2020 following a public consultation period. Topic Box 9.6 Examples of Circular Economy Initiatives Refill.ie Refill.ie is a not-for-profit social enterprise working to make Ireland’s towns and cities’ tap water ‘refill friendly’ for everyone while on the go. They work with business communities, public organisations, community groups and local authorities to create and maintain locations where reusable water bottles can be refilled for free. The aim is to prevent plastic waste through reducing the amount of single-use plastic bottles consumed. Over 1300 locations are on Refill.ie’s TAP MAP at www.refill.ie or on its app. FoodCloud FoodCloud is a not-for-profit social enterprise established in 2013 as the first national surplus food redistribution network. FoodCloud connects businesses with surplus, edible food to community groups that can use it, providing the opportunity for businesses and community groups to work together to increase social inclusion while addressing the problem of food waste. FoodCloud has helped to facilitate the redistribution of 30,893 tonnes of surplus food to community groups across Ireland, the UK and internationally, the equivalent of over 37 million meals. 36 https://food.cloud/ Repairmystuff.ie Repairmystuff.ie is an online repair directory platform, developed by Monaghan County Council through grant support from the National Waste Prevention Programme’s Local Authority Prevention Network. Its purpose is to support repair for reuse, a core ambition of a circular economy. Repair organisations can register for free, and the public can search for repair businesses in their local area by category. https:// www.repairmystuff.ie/ Conscious Cup Campaign The Conscious Cup Campaign is an environmental non-governmental organisation (NGO) 37 that started in 2016 with the ambition of reducing the use of single-use cups in Ireland by encouraging cafes and other outlets to incentivise, through rewards, customers who bring their own cups. Its Cafe Map shows outlets that provide such discounts or incentives to customers. The campaign also supports the food-to-go industry to eliminate single-use items by implementing reuse solutions for both front and back of house. https://consciouscup.ie/ 32 Typically known as Article 27 and Article 28 under Irish transposing legislation. 33 Typically produced in excavations for construction. 34 Materials from removing the surface of a road or pavement during maintenance or construction. The European Commission has developed end-of-waste criteria for iron, steel and aluminium scrap and glass cullet. The EPA is responsible for making national decisions and single-case decisions on end-of-waste criteria if there are no criteria at EU level. Recent single-case decisions relate to plastic, recycled aggregate, ash from energy generation and recovered ammonium sulphate. 35 The EPA has published draft end-of-waste guidance, which will be finalised in 2020 following a public consultation period. Consumer-led Sustainability Initiatives The UN SDGs and the EU’s Circular Economy Package have put increased focus on prevention of food waste and reducing consumption of single-use plastic products. Many social enterprises and charity and citizen initiatives have been set up to prevent waste and deliver circular economy initiatives (Topic Box 9.6). 35 Decisions can be found here: http://www.epa.ie/waste/wastereg/art28/ 36 The volume of surplus food redistributed in Ireland to date is 8767 tonnes, the equivalent of 20.9 million meals. 37 Funded by the regional waste management planning offices and supported by VOICE (environmental NGO). 246