Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 October 2004
458 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the volume and share of recycling by sectoral source in 1998 and in 2003; and the way in which this compares with the Government’s target. [23585/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraI refer to the national waste database reports for 1998 and 2001 published by the EPA, which contain the latest official data on the volume and share of recycling by sectoral source. In addition, the EPA, in its interim waste database report for 2002, published recently, noted a slowdown in the generation of municipal waste, which grew by less than 1% in 2002, together with a 4.5% decrease in the amount of waste going to landfill.
The EPA also reported that the recycling of municipal waste has accelerated to almost 21%, representing an 8% increase over the 2001 position. These figures indicate that significant progress is being made towards increased recycling, for which a target 35% recycling of municipal waste has been set for 2013. Packaging waste recycling, at 33% in 2002, is up 7.7% on the 2001 level which indicates that Ireland is on course to attain the 50% recycling target for this waste stream set for end 2005.
The aforementioned reports are available in the Oireachtas Library.
