Municipal waste statistics for Ireland

EPA waste data release 27 November 2023. Latest reference year 2021 (Data subject to Eurostat validation)

Municipal waste is made up of household waste and commercial waste that is similar to household waste. The EPA reports data on how much municipal waste is generated and how it is treated.

Our national municipal waste data releases are based on information compiled in line with European rules. For reporting year 2020, Europe changed those rules and the municipal waste information from 2020 onwards is therefore not directly comparable to earlier data.

In 2021, Ireland generated 3.17 million tonnes of municipal waste and recycled 41 per cent of it.

What is municipal waste?

In our everyday lives we produce a general mix of waste in our homes, offices, schools and similar premises. This type of waste is called municipal waste. It is usually collected at kerbside or we can bring it to collection centres such as bring banks or civic amenity facilities. The amount of municipal waste generated is an important measure of how wasteful our everyday lives are.

Municipal Waste includes the following waste types:

• Residual (i.e. black bin) waste is mostly mixed waste that cannot be recycled.
• Recyclable (i.e. green bin or segregated) waste is, for example, clean glass, plastic, paper, cardboard and metals.
• Biowaste (i.e. brown bin) waste is mainly food and garden waste.
• Bulky waste does not fit into a wheelie bin and is, for example, broken furniture, carpets, toys etc.
• Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE).

Key findings for 2021

• Ireland generated 3.17 million tonnes of municipal waste in 2021, which is comparable (down one per cent) to the 3.2 million tonnes generated in 2020 (refer to Table 1). Between 2016 and 2021, municipal waste increased from 2.7 million tonnes to 3.17 million tonnes.
• Of this, 57 per cent came from households and 43 per cent from commercial and public service sources (refer to Table 2).
• Some 1.3 million tonnes of municipal waste generated in Ireland was recycled in 2021, resulting in a recycling rate of 41 per cent [1]. This indicates that we face significant challenges to meet the upcoming EU recycling targets for 2025 to 2035 [2] (refer to Figure 1).
• Of the municipal waste recycled in 2021, 824,969 tonnes went for material recycling (down 14 per cent on 2020) and 487,594 tonnes were composting/anaerobic digestion (up 39 per cent on 2020) (Table 1 and Figure 2). The large increase of composted/anaerobically digested biowaste is mainly due to a change in our way of estimating home composting.
• A rounded 1.3 million tonnes of Ireland’s municipal waste went for incineration with energy recovery in 2021. This tonnage is 42 per cent of municipal waste managed and a marginal decrease on the 43 per cent achieved in 2020. The 2021 rate continues a downward trend of the share of municipal waste incinerated with energy recovery. (Figure 3). 
• Ireland’s landfill rate for municipal waste managed was 16 per cent in 2021, and therefore the same as in 2020. There has been a steep decline in Ireland’s landfill rate for municipal waste from over 80 per cent in 2001. Ireland must reduce the share of municipal waste landfilled to 10 per cent or less by 2035, which includes waste landfilled at each step along the waste treatment process in Ireland and abroad.
• Ireland’s reliance on the export of municipal waste abroad for final treatment decreased further in 2021 (Table 4). An estimated 38 per cent (1.2 million tonnes) of all municipal waste managed was exported abroad in 2021, down from 40 per cent in 2020. Of the waste exported, most went for material recycling [3] (57 per cent) or energy recovery (32 per cent) while 11 per cent went for composting or anaerobic digestion.

Figure 1. Ireland's generation and recycling of municipal waste compared to EU targets.