Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 18 January 2023
101. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications if progress has been made in calculating the amount of polyethylene terephthalate, PET, and plastic that are recycled domestically and exported; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1311/23]
View answer102. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications his proposals to reduce the amount of polyethylene terephthalate, PET, and plastic exported from Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1312/23]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 101 and 102 together.
At present, the quantity of recyclable materials placed on the market exceeds domestic recycling capacity and the waste management industry relies, in part, on the export market to meet its processing needs. The following organisations collate data on PET and plastic and the recycling and export of that waste:
- The National Transfontier Shipment Office (NTFSO) maintains records of waste exports and registers containing details of waste exported by year are available on the NTFSO website.
- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) collects data for national waste statistics and data on the treatment of packaging waste, including plastic recycled outside Ireland, is published in the EPA’s Waste Packaging Statistics for Ireland.
- Repak, the national packaging Extended Producer Responsibility scheme, has subsidies in place to incentivise domestic recycling infrastructure ahead of recycling abroad by providing, for example:
- an additional reprocessing subsidy for household collection which was introduced in 2020 and is only available to plastic re-processors with operations in Ireland. Currently this subsidy is €80 per tonne.
- a stepped system in place for commercial collection with the highest subsidy payable where material is recycled in Ireland, mid-range funding where material is recycled in EU/UK, and a reduced subsidy for material sent outside Europe.
Repak also reports data on plastic recycling in its annual Plastic Pledge Report.
Latest data from the EPA shows that 89,057 tonnes of plastic packaging waste was recycled in 2020, of which 7,568 tonnes (8%) was recycled domestically and 81,489 tonnes (92%) was recycled outside Ireland. Currently, data on PET exports cannot be separately identified as there is no EU or international waste code for this type of material.
In November 2022, I launched the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for PET plastic bottles and aluminium cans. Data on PET plastic bottles will be collected and reported to the Department by Re-turn, the DRS operator, once the scheme is live.
