When Plastic And Aluminium Become One Recycling Problem.
I want to sincerely thank Minister of State Mr Alan Dillon TD (through his Private Secretary Ms Michaela Sullivan), for taking the time to provide such a detailed and informative response. Unfortunately, many TDs these days fail to reply to constituents’ questions at all, so a meaningful response deserves to be publicly acknowledged.
We recently wrote to Mr Dillon TD regarding the fact that certain containers are fast becoming the new litter menace in Thurles and around the Irish countryside; increasingly found discarded on streets, roadsides and in other public spaces.
Although Ireland’s Deposit Return Scheme covers PET* bottles and aluminium or steel cans from 150ml to 3 litres, the Department has confirmed that this container is excluded because it is considered hybrid packaging, owing to its high aluminium-to-PET ratio.
The photograph below shows a 200ml BuzzBallz container made from a combination of plastic and aluminium.
* PET stands for polyethylene terephthalate, a widely used plastic. It is a lightweight, durable plastic commonly used to make drinks bottles and is normally identified by the number 1 recycling symbol.
That creates a serious problem; the container may contaminate the aluminium recycling stream, while its metal content could also damage equipment used to process plastic. In other words, it is designed in a way that makes effective recycling extremely difficult.
The new EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation is intended to address packaging like this. It requires packaging placed on the EU market to be recyclable, with reconcilability requirements beginning in 2030. Hopefully, this will bring an end to poorly designed hybrid containers that fall outside the deposit scheme and are too easily discarded on our streets and in our countryside.
The Minister’s office also explained that Re-turn works with local authorities, the LGMA and the Waste Enforcement Regional Lead Authorities to identify and investigate breaches of the Deposit Return Scheme rules. According to the Department, hundreds of inspections have taken place since the transition period ended, and 80% of the non-compliant stakeholders identified are now compliant or working towards compliance. Reports from members of the public remain an important part of that enforcement effort.
However, the wider question remains; why should any drinks container be allowed onto the Irish market, if it cannot be efficiently collected and recycled?
Packaging should be designed for a circular economy from the beginning, not become someone else’s environmental problem at the end.
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