Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

419 Chapter 15: Circular Economy and Waste ■ Biodiversity loss and land use change. Extraction of resources (such as biomass, metal, minerals and peat) is contributing to the loss of Ireland’s biodiversity and ecosystems (see Chapter 7). Globally, extracting and processing material resources accounts for 90% of biodiversity impacts (UNEP, 2019). Healthy ecosystems play a key role in climate resilience by absorbing and accumulating carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Our current consumption of materials coupled with Ireland’s poor circularity rates contribute to biodiversity loss, climate change, disruption to land management practices (see Chapter 5) and emissions to air and water. ■ Reliance on export for waste treatment. Ireland’s increasing waste generation rates and inability to treat all our own waste domestically has led to a reliance on exporting waste for treatment. At the same time, there is a reliance on lower tier treatment (e.g. disposal and recovery), rather than higher tier treatment such as prevention, reuse and recycling. Although there may always be a need to rely on other Member States for some waste treatment options, there are opportunities to increase the contribution of Ireland’s recycling sector to the circular economy of the future. ■ High consumption rate. Ireland is a large consumer of materials, as evidenced by our increasing waste generation rates (3.25 tonnes per person in 2020, up from 2.77 tonnes per person in 2012). All materials have carbon built into their supply chain. This can be released when the waste is treated, including when the material is recycled. Every tonne of material used contributes to our carbon emissions. To reduce our emissions, our current production models and consumption habits need to change. We need to tackle the linear economic model and take strong and urgent action to make it easier and affordable to prevent waste, increase reuse and expand recycling activities. Current policy actions to reduce waste and support the circular economy are contained in the Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy (DECC, 2020) and in Ireland’s National Food Waste Prevention Roadmap (DECC, 2022). Although actions are supporting the transition to a circular economy, only a few are effective prevention measures and likely to result in a sustained reduction in waste generation. Future circular economy policy statements must aim to tackle linear consumption and waste generation in the first instance.