Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 7 July 2004
318 Mr. Ferris asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he will report on the implementation of the EC directive on packaging and packaging waste, in particular the enforcement of the new phase from 2004 to 2008. [20675/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraDirective 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste is based on the concept of producer responsibility, which effectively requires producers to contribute to the waste management costs of products which they have placed on the market at the end of their lives. Under the directive, Ireland was required to achieve a 25% recovery rate of packaging waste by 1 July 2001, increasing to a 50% recovery rate by 31 December 2005, with a minimum of 25% to be achieved by recycling, including a minimum 15% recycling rate for each type of packaging material. In accordance with this approach, a producer responsibility initiative operates in Ireland in the area of recovery of packaging waste and is underpinned by the Waste Management (Packaging) Regulations 2003 which replaced earlier regulations introduced in 1997.
Under the regulations, producers are required to take steps individually to recover their packaging waste — this is known as self-compliance — or alternatively to contribute to, and participate in, compliance schemes set up to recover packaging waste. Repak Limited was established by Irish industry in 1997 to promote, co-ordinate and finance the collection and recovery of packaging waste with a view to achieving Ireland's packaging waste recovery and recycling targets under Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste and is the only such approved compliance scheme in Ireland. Repak has reported consistent progress since 1997 and in 2001 met the 25% packaging waste recovery target required by the directive. The latest indications are that Ireland is on course to meet the higher recovery and recycling targets for the end of 2005.
Enforcement of the packaging regulations is primarily a matter for local authorities. In this regard, I have allocated €7 million to local authorities from the environment fund in 2004 for stepped-up enforcement of waste management legislation generally. Local authorities have been requested to give particular priority to enforcement of the new packaging regulations in their functional areas. In this context, the network of enforcement officers from the major urban local authorities — which was established by my Department in late 2001 to step up enforcement of the packaging regulations — has now been extended nationwide to all local authorities. Furthermore, the Office of Environmental Enforcement was recently established within the Environmental Protection Agency to improve the implementation and enforcement of environmental legislation generally. Local authorities are obliged to report to the EPA on their enforcement activities and where a local authority's performance is deemed to be unsatisfactory, the EPA can take appropriate remedial action on the matter, including as a last resort prosecuting relevant local authorities for failing to discharge their enforcement obligations.
The 1994 packaging directive has recently been revised by a new amending directive which specifies higher recovery and recycling targets to be achieved by 2011 in the case of Ireland and 2008 for most other member states. The main revisions to the 1994 directive are an increase in the packaging waste recovery target to 60% and in the packaging waste recycling target to 55%, with the material-specific recycling targets for glass, 60%, paper and board, 60%, metals, 50%, plastics, 22.5%, and wood, 15%. In this regard, my Department is in discussions with Repak with a view to developing an effective strategy which will facilitate the achievement by Ireland of the new higher recovery and recycling targets over the period 2006 to 2011.
