Trevor Sargent
Question:197 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the progress being made to promote plastic recycling here; and if he has had contact with companies (details supplied) in this regard. [24103/02]
Written Answers. - Waste Management.
The recycling of post-consumer plastic beverage containers and other types of plastic packaging is generally more problematic than the recycling of other packaging materials, due to the light weight to volume ratio, sorting and pre-treatment requirements, high end market specifications and associated costs involved. Accordingly, the recycling rate of plastic packaging is generally lower than that of other packaging materials.
Against this background the local and regional waste management plans, which are now being implemented, provide for a significantly increased network of bring facilities to facilitate increased collection of recyclables, including plastic beverage containers. Receptacles for the deposit of such containers are already in place in a number of counties. It is envisaged that similar arrangements will be extended to all regions in the near future.
The local and regional waste management plans also provide for the progressive introduction of segregated household collection of dry recyclables in urban areas. Segregated collection services, serving over 200,000 households, are already available throughout the Dublin region and also in areas of Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Limerick, Louth, Meath, Tipperary and Waterford. The collection of plastic beverage containers under such arrangements is contingent on the availability of material recovery facilities at which dry recyclables are sorted and baled for onward delivery to reprocessing outlets. On 7 November I announced the allocation of €15 million in grant assistance towards the provision of waste recovery infrastructure, as the first round of allocations under the waste infrastructure capital grants scheme announced earlier this year. This will support the development, inter alia, of bring banks and civic amenity sites, and the expansion of an existing material recovery facility, facilitating increased collection, and recovery of plastic beverage containers and other recyclables in the years ahead.
In addition, as was indicated in the recent policy statement, Preventing and Recycling Waste: Delivering Change, further initiatives to facilitate additional recovery-recycling of specific materials, such as PET beverage and other plastic containers, will be targeted with support from Repak and local authorities. The policy statement also provides for the establishment of a market development group to drive a new market development programme for recyclable materials.
My Department has contact with the companies named, one of whom received capital grant aid for recycling infrastructure under the operational programme for environmental services 1994-99, and with other interested parties regarding measures to promote plastic recycling.