Ireland will fail to reach another recycling target without a concerted effort, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has warned.
By 2025, Ireland committed to EU targets to recycle at least 55 percent of municipal waste. Provisional estimates by the EPA suggest only 41.6 percent of waste was recycled.
For packaging waste, the 2025 target was 65 percent. The EPA estimates 61.3 percent was recycled.
Municipal and packaging recycling rates are going up, but far too slowly.
Now the EPA has warned that, at the current trajectory, Ireland will miss the 2030 targets too.
By then – less than four years away – Ireland is supposed to be recycling 60 percent of municipal waste and 70 percent of packaging.
Ireland is not the only country struggling to reach the EU targets, agreed by all 27 member states.
But Ireland is certainly a laggard.
“The forecasts indicate that waste generation is expected to continue to grow across municipal waste, from households and businesses and packaging waste streams. Recycling rates for municipal wastes are forecast to remain largely stagnant and lag behind the EU average”, the EPA says.
“Packaging waste recycling rates are projected to increase modestly, however the increases are not expected to be sufficient to meet future targets.”
The 2030 targets appear “challenging” based on current waste generation and recycling trends, the EPA added.
“Reducing waste generation levels is critical, but increased recycling rates will also be needed.”
David Flynn, the EPA’s Director of Environmental Sustainability, said the problem is that people are throwing away more stuff.
“While recycling rates for packaging are improving, these gains are eroded by continued growth in waste generation.
The priority now is to implement policy measures in the Government’s Whole of Government Circular Economy Strategy, delivering the practical circular economy solutions to incentivise waste prevention and better material recovery along the full supply chain.’’