{"id":474318,"date":"2026-05-08T06:23:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T06:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/474318\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T06:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T06:23:11","slug":"recycling-rates-stagnate-as-waste-volumes-grow-leaving-ireland-way-off-target-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/474318\/","title":{"rendered":"Recycling rates stagnate as waste volumes grow, leaving Ireland way off target \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland is recycling more but efforts are barely keeping pace with the extra waste the country is generating. <\/p>\n

It means the percentage of household and business waste recycled is flatlining at a time when it is meant to be steadily rising. <\/p>\n

The recycling rate has been stuck at 41-42 per cent for the last four years, according to latest figures from the Environmental Protection Agency<\/a> (EPA). <\/p>\n

Under EU<\/a> and national targets, it should have reached 55 per cent last year and must rise to at least 60 per cent in the next four years. <\/p>\n

The country would need to recycle an additional 500,000 tonnes of bin contents to achieve that target. <\/p>\n

Recycling rates specifically for packaging waste \u2013 mainly plastic and cardboard containers and wrapping \u2013 are better and have crept up from 60 per cent to 62 per cent. <\/p>\n

But the target was 65 per cent last year and is 70 per cent within the next four years. <\/p>\n

The EPA said those targets will not be reached without more intensive efforts to simultaneously increase recycling and reduce waste generation in the first place. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile recycling rates for packaging are improving, these gains are eroded by continued growth in waste generation,\u201d said David Flynn, director of the EPA\u2019s office of environmental sustainability. <\/p>\n

The EPA forecasts that 3.2 million tonnes of municipal waste will be created this year \u2013 a 2.4 per cent increase over the last four years. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe forecasts indicate that waste generation is expected to continue,\u201d it says, leading to \u201csignificant challenges\u201d in meeting targets. <\/p>\n

\u201cRecycling rates for municipal wastes are forecast to remain largely stagnant and lag behind the EU average.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waste that is not recycled must be incinerated, landfilled or exported abroad \u2013 unsatisfactory solutions from financial and environmental perspectives. <\/p>\n

Contributing to the problem is the growing population and economy, as well as the increase in online shopping with associated extra packaging. <\/p>\n

There are also failures at household, business and industrial level to get the basics right, however. <\/p>\n

Food waste is a big problem, exacerbated by the failure of many commercial premises to use organic waste or brown bins or to use them correctly.<\/p>\n

There is also a continuing shortage of brown-bin options for apartment dwellers. That is despite a legal obligation on waste collectors to provide brown bins for all customers. <\/p>\n

The EPA is also concerned about the low appetite among producers, suppliers and retailers for switching to reusable and refillable containers. <\/p>\n

Heavy use of plastic packaging for fruit and vegetables is also a persistent problem, whereas other EU member states have reverted more readily to selling loose produce.<\/p>\n

Minister for the Environment Darragh O\u2019Brien<\/a> earlier this year published an updated Whole of Government Circular Economy Strategy aimed at controlling waste volumes and boosting recycling rates. <\/p>\n

It includes a target of cutting food waste by 50 per cent and packaging waste by 5 per cent by 2030.<\/p>\n

The EPA\u2019s Flynn acknowledged the strategy but said: \u201cThe priority now is to implement policy measures.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland is recycling more but efforts are barely keeping pace with the extra waste the country is generating.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[127768,139209,207887,79,24411,14872,18,207888,19,17,207889,24413,207890,5584,207891,70657,207892,18582],"class_list":{"0":"post-474318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-20s","9":"tag-bins","10":"tag-break-area","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-caucasian","13":"tag-close-up","14":"tag-eire","15":"tag-holding-bottle","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-lunch-area","19":"tag-man","20":"tag-mid-section","21":"tag-millennials","22":"tag-office-recycling","23":"tag-rubbish","24":"tag-smart-clothing","25":"tag-waste"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116537524559916642","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}