Date released: December 16, 2024
16th December 2024: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has today published the Circular Economy and Waste Statistics Highlights Report 2022. This report identifies that Ireland generated 15.7 million tonnes of waste in 2022, which although a decrease on 2021 figures, still shows a growth of over 20 per cent in the last decade.
Commenting on the report, David Flynn, Director of the Office of Environmental Sustainability, EPA said:
“Today’s report from the EPA shows that Ireland’s progress towards a circular economy is stalling. Current measures to prevent waste, to promote reuse and to encourage recycling are not enough to meet mandatory municipal waste and plastic packaging targets. The challenge for Ireland is to reverse these trends and significantly reduce waste production and increase reuse and recycling. Strong implementation of existing policies and the introduction of new measures that support investment in new circular economy infrastructure will help move us away from a wasteful linear economy.”
Summary of data from the key sectors
Construction and demolition waste
Municipal waste
Single-use Plastics
The report shows that over the last 10 years Ireland’s recycling rate has stagnated and mandatory targets for municipal and plastic packaging are at a high risk of not being met. Currently Ireland’s municipal waste recycling rate is unchanged at 41 per cent, with a requirement to be at 55 per cent by 2025. In addition, whilst recycling of packaging waste is 60 per cent, this must reach 65 per cent by 2025. In 2022 the plastic packaging recycling was 32 percent, up from 28 per cent in 2021, however the recycling target for plastic packaging is 50 per cent by 2025.
Positively, regarding construction and demolition (C&D) waste, 82 per cent is recovered, the majority being used or recovered in back filling for land restoration. This is in excess of the 70 per cent recovery rate required.
The report also highlights that Ireland’s capacity to collect and treat waste is vulnerable and underperforming, with an over-reliance on other countries to treat our recycling materials and general municipal waste. In 2022 38 per cent (1.2 million tonnes) of all municipal waste was exported for treatment. This included 369,000 tonnes of residual waste exported for energy recovery through incineration.
Commenting on the report findings Warren Phelan, Programme Manager of the EPA’s Circular Economy Programme said:
“Ireland’s economy is characterised by a high consumption of raw materials. However deeper change is needed right across the economy to accelerate the transition to a more circular economy. Effective regulation, incentives and enforcement are required to influence businesses and consumers to adopt best practices in production, supply, purchasing, use and reuse of goods, products and services.”
The EPA’s national waste statistics are published on the EPA website.
The Circular Economy and Waste Statistics Highlights Report 2022 is available on the EPA website.
Contact: Emily Williamson, EPA Media Relations Office, 053-9170770 (24 hours) or media@epa.ie.
Note to Editors:
The EPA compiles official statistics on waste generation and treatment in Ireland. These are used for reporting on Ireland’s performance in meeting its legal obligations, for policy and waste management planning purposes and to inform the general public. Data are compiled through surveys of waste operators and administrative data sources, in cooperation with other public authorities. EPA waste data is published on an ongoing basis throughout the year. Today’s report is an omnibus report providing a summary and insights into previous data released for the reporting period 2022.
Circular economy: A circular economy is one where materials, including packaging, are recirculated, and used again and again, and waste is minimised. To facilitate the move to a more circular economy, the European Commission put forward a Circular Economy Package in December 2015, which includes revised legislative proposals on waste, as well as a comprehensive Action Plan. The Irish Government published a new national waste policy, A Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy, in September 2021.
Municipal Waste is the waste we all produce every day in our homes, offices, businesses and schools. It includes household and non-household (commercial) waste.
Recovery means any operation the principal result of which is waste serving a useful purpose by replacing other materials which would otherwise have been used to fulfil that function, or waste being prepared to fulfil that function, in the plant or in the wider economy. Annex II of the Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC) sets out a non-exhaustive list of recovery operations, which include material recovery (i.e. recycling), energy recovery (i.e. use a fuel other than in direct incineration, or other means to generate energy) and biological recovery (e.g. composting).
Recycling means any recovery operation by which waste materials are reprocessed into products, materials or substances whether for the original or other purposes. It includes the reprocessing of organic material but does not include energy recovery and the reprocessing into materials that are to be used as fuels or for backfilling operations.
