Ireland on track to miss EU recycling targets — EPA report 

The group says Ireland is "overly reliant on unpredictable export markets".

The targets Ireland must meet by 2025 include a recycling rate of 50%, reaching a rate of municipal waste recycling of 55%, and recycling of packaging waste much reach 60%.

Data in the report revealed Ireland sent almost 382,000 tonnes of residual waste for incineration abroad.

Construction and demolition waste increased by 10% (up to 9m tonnes) while packing waste rose 9% (to 1.2m tonnes)

Just under 28% of plastic packaging generated in Ireland was recycled in 2021, with the remainder being treated by incineration (70%) and disposal (2%).

Director of EPA's office of environmental sustainability David Flynn said: "We continue to throw away far too much, wasting valuable materials. We live on a resource-finite planet and resource extraction causes greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss and water stress. 

"To reduce these impacts, we must accelerate our transition from a linear economy to a circular, more resource-efficient economy."

Mr Flynn said the focus at the moment needed to be on avoiding waste.

He added: "That means reusing construction waste materials where possible, becoming better at segregating our municipal waste and vastly improving the recycling of packaging materials.”

Fixes that could be implemented included:

• Improving waste prevention, especially in the C&D sector;
• Rolling out a brown bin service for organic waste to all customers;
• Improving waste segregation by businesses and householders putting their waste into the correct bins;
• Reducing our reliance on vulnerable export markets for our waste; 
• Fully implementing our circular economy plan.

There were some positives in the EPA report.

At the moment, 69% of Irish households have access to a brown bin service, a rise of 5% on 2020.

72,000 tonnes of waste electrical and electronic equipment (Weee) was collected in 2021, a rise of 10%, while 'hazardous waste' dropped by 16% in the same year.

The latter was down to a number of factors, including:

• Incinerator bottom ash (IBA) was reclassified as a non-hazardous waste in April, 2020. In 2021 over 108,000 tonnes of IBA was exported as a non-hazardous waste;
• Dredging spoil decreased by almost 25,000 tonnes, due to reduced dredging activities at Dublin Port;
• Contaminated soils decreased by over 45,000 tonnes. Activities at Limerick Gas Works, previously a source of high tonnages of contaminated soil, came to an end in 2020.

The EPA did note that 2021 was a "covid year".