Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 26 January 2005
1327 Mr. F. McGrath asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the detailed breakdown in both tonnage and percentages of waste here, that is, household waste, industrial waste, commercial waste, building waste and agricultural waste; and the amount recycled each year. [1027/05]
View answerNational waste statistics are collated and published by the EPA. Its most recent report, the National Waste Database 2003 Interim Report, shows 3,001,016 tonnes of municipal — household and commercial — waste was generated in that year and that 28.4% was recovered. This continues a positive trend — equivalent rates for 2002 and 2001 were 21% and 13% respectively — and suggests that we may significantly exceed our diversion of municipal waste from landfill target of 35% by 2013.
Household waste accounted for 1,596,501 tonnes of municipal waste in 2003, of which 13% was recovered. While this is an improvement over the 9% household waste recovery reported for 2002, it will be a challenge to deliver a household waste recovery and recycling rate of 50% by 2013. Commercial waste accounted for a further 1,332,735 tonnes of municipal waste and some 47% of commercial waste was recovered, a further significant improvement.
Recovery rates for other waste streams are also encouraging. Some 1,006,287 tonnes of packaging waste were generated in 2003 but 41.7% was recovered. This suggests that we are on target for our 2005 target of 50% recovery. Of 1,683,477 tonnes of biodegradable waste, 32% was recovered, representing a reduction in the amount of biodegradable waste landfilled.
Statistics for industrial, construction and agricultural waste were last generated for the National Waste Database Report 2001. The recovery of construction and demolition waste was then estimated to have increased from 1,171,572 tonnes or 43.3% in 1998 to 2,364,886 tonnes or 65.4% in 2001. The recovery rate of industrial waste was estimated to be at 25.5% in 2001. Agriculture is the biggest single waste source in Ireland and in 2001 accounted for more than 56 million tonnes of waste generated. A high proportion of agricultural waste is land spread, which constitutes a recovery activity, but detailed figures on recovery rates are not available.
