Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

418 Chapter 15: Circular Economy and Waste 3. In 2023, the EPA handled 99 odour and six noise complaints relating to waste transfer facilities. 4. As a developing sector in Ireland, anaerobic digestion has the potential to displace fossil gas and decarbonise Ireland’s agriculture sector. Six plants, licensed by the EPA, are operational. Significant compliance issues have arisen at these facilities, including inadequate process control, odour nuisance and digestate management. Developing appropriately skilled workers and technical capabilities at these plants is required to ensure compliance with licence conditions and to protect the environment. 5. The EPA has worked with local authorities, WERLAs, An Garda Síochána, the National Transfrontier Shipment Office and the three regional waste management planning offices on multi-agency enforcement. Activities have focused on improving compliance at authorised treatment facilities and metal sites, minimising the risk of national waste capacity shortfall, enforcing EPA guidance on waste acceptance criteria in the soil recovery sector and tackling contaminant levels in the recycling waste stream. The EPA has developed a system for ranking industrial and waste licensed sites in order of priority for enforcement action and publishes its findings quarterly in a list of national priority sites. 18 Sites are ranked on performance-based indicators (see Chapter 10). 18 National priority sites list: www.epa.ie/our-services/compliance--enforcement/whats-happening/national-priority-sites-list/ (accessed 24 June 2024). 19 www.sitra.fi/en/publications/circular-economy-powerful-force-climate-mitigation/ (accessed 24 June 2024). 4. Pressure and impacts The current linear economy consumes materials to provide a higher standard of living in Ireland than that experienced by previous generations or available in other parts of the world. The system of extraction of primary materials, manufacture and disposal frequently puts obstacles in the way of circular economy activities. While a circular economy aims to design waste out of the system, it also requires measures that inhibit linear activities such as removing the following: certain single-use products, the practice of built-in obsolescence and high repair costs compared with the cost of new purchases. The linear approach is facing significant limiting factors that are causing damage to our society and environment: ■ High rates of material extraction. Using primary materials rather than secondary materials is the norm in Ireland (Figure 15.6). This is evidenced by Ireland’s low material circularity rate (1.8% in 2022 compared with an EU average of 11.5%), indicating a linear flow of materials. A more circular economy keeps resources and materials in use for longer and can reduce emissions from Ireland’s extractive, agricultural and industrial activities. A recent international report 19 highlighted the potential influence of a circular economy in mitigating the effects of climate change. It states that as much as 296 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year (of the 530 million tonnes emitted from heavy industry) could be removed across the EU by 2050 – and some 3.6 billion tonnes per year globally. ■ High rates of waste generation. A common theme across all waste types is one of increasing generation. Recycling rates are static because increases in wastes being recycled cannot keep up with waste generation increases. There is no indication that these trends are changing.