Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

461 Chapter 16: Environmental Policy Implementation and Performance POLICY AREA CURRENT ASSESSMENT OUTLOOK NOTES CIRCULAR ECONOMY AND WASTE Circular material use rate The circular material use rate (CMUR) measures the ratio between recycled materials and overall material use. Ireland’s CMUR increased marginally from 1.7% in 2017 to 1.8% in 2022; however, this remains significantly lower than the EU average (11.5% in 2022). There are known methodological challenges and limitations to using the CMUR in an Irish context related to the structure of Ireland’s economy. It is clear that significant improvements in recycling and reductions in the extraction and consumption of virgin materials are needed to improve Ireland’s circularity rate. Overall circular economy and waste assessment The overall current assessment for the circular economy and waste is poor (the same as in 2020) but progress is being made in a number of areas to improve performance. Waste generation continues to grow, in absolute and per capita terms, and Ireland remains overly reliant on export markets for recycling and for treating municipal residual waste. Recycling rates for municipal and plastic packaging waste streams are at risk and need to increase urgently to achieve 2025 targets. Recent interventions, such as the Deposit Return Scheme, statutory roll-out of the organic waste collection service, recovery levy and national end-of waste and by-product decisions, are positive developments but the effects of these remain to be seen. The circular material use rates remains very low by comparison to the European average and Ireland needs to address specific sectoral challenges to accelerate moving from a linear to a circular economy. SUMMARY OF CURRENT ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE, POLICY AND IMPLEMENTATION IN IRELAND Very poor – significant environmental and/or compliance challenges to address Poor – environmental and/or compliance challenges to address Moderate – on track generally/local or occasional challenges to address Good – mainly achieving objectives Very good – fully achieving objectives OUTLOOK OF CURRENT PROSPECTS OF MEETING POLICY OBJECTIVES AND/OR TARGETS Largely not on track to meet policy objectives and targets. Significant challenges remain to achieving full compliance. Systemic and transformative change needed. Partially on track to achieving full compliance or measures in place or planned that will improve the situation. However, the outlook is dependent on existing and planned actions and measures and plans being fully implemented and effective. Largely on track to achieving full compliance. Measures in place provide prospect of meeting policy objectives and targets.