Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

431 Chapter 15: Circular Economy and Waste Recycling levels for municipal, total packaging and plastic packaging waste streams cannot keep pace with waste generation levels and are undermining our efforts to improve Ireland’s performance. For example, since 2016, volumes of packaging waste have risen by 25% while the recycling rate for packaging has risen by one-third of that (8%). As a result, Ireland is on course to miss EU waste recycling targets for municipal, total packaging and plastic packaging wastes for 2025, as shown in Figure 15.17. Figure 15.17  Recycling and recovery rates and targets in municipal, waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and packaging waste, 2021 0 20 40 60 Municipal recycling rate 2021 41% Municipal target 2025: 55% 80 0 20 40 60 WEEE collection rate 2021 64% WEEE collection target: 65% 80 100 100 0 20 40 60 Plastic packaging recycling rate 2021 28% Plastic packaging target 2025: 50% 80 100 0 20 40 60 Overall packaging recycling rate 2021 59% Overall packaging target 2025: 65% 80 100 Source: EPA, 2023b To have any prospect of meeting the 2025 recycling targets, we need to focus our efforts on reducing waste generation and improving source segregation of wastes to support recycling. As the latest waste characterisation reports show, households and businesses are not segregating wastes correctly, and many do not have a separate organic waste bin. There is a significant opportunity to improve recycling through the full implementation and use of a segregated system for residual waste, mixed dry recyclables and organic waste bins. Continuing awareness and enforcement measures are essential. So too is the urgent roll-out of organic waste bins to households and businesses that have not been provided with them to date. Ireland exported over 1.3 million tonnes of municipal waste in 2020 with over 400,000 tonnes sent for treatment by incineration with energy recovery. Ireland’s insufficient capacity to treat domestic residual wastes and its continued reliance on overseas treatment facilities are risks to public health and to the waste sector. Exporting waste is an economic and environmental loss to Ireland, as other Member States benefit from the energy generated from our waste. National capacity to treat residual non-hazardous and hazardous wastes needs to be developed where feasible to build resilience and reduce dependence on exports.