Ireland generated 1.2 million tonnes of packaging waste in 2021.
Ireland is continuing to achieve high levels of recycling for glass (84%) and paper/cardboard (73%).
Plastics present a serious challenge. Only 28% of plastic packaging waste was recycled in 2021, a long way off the 2025 EU target of 50%. The majority of Ireland’s plastic packaging waste is being incinerated.
Ireland’s overall recycling rate fell from 62% in 2020 to 58% in 2021. It must reach 65% in 2025.
Fiscal measures to incentivise householders and businesses are also urgently needed. The new levy on waste sent for recovery, and increases to the landfill levy, will reward better practices of segregation of waste.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has today published its latest figures on packaging waste in Ireland.
Ireland is meeting current EU recycling targets and achieving high recycling rates for some streams such as glass, paper/cardboard and ferrous metals. However, in 2021, the overall recycling rate for packaging waste fell by 4% to 58%, putting the 2025 target of 65% at risk. While the quantity of packaging waste being recycled is increasing every year, it cannot keep up with the total increase in packaging waste being generated in the first place.
Plastic packaging waste recycling rates remain low, at 28%. Most plastic packaging waste was sent for incineration, with less than one third recycled. Ireland will face significant challenges in meeting the 2025 and 2030 recycling targets for plastic of 50% and 55%.
Commenting on the figures, Mr Micheal Lehane, (Director of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Sustainability) said: “Urgent measures are needed to reduce the quantity of packaging waste generated in Ireland each year. Our current rate of production and consumption of packaging represents a poor use of materials and energy and is a growing source of emissions. With Ireland’s packaging waste exceeding 1.2 million tonnes per year, we need to intensify efforts to avoid unnecessary packaging use in the first instance. Packaging waste can be avoided and reduced by replacing single use with reusable packaging, current examples include pallets, boxes and trays, and through better product design such as lightweighting packaging.”
Poor segregation practices at businesses and homes is leading to high volumes of packaging waste being diverted to energy recovery. This includes materials which can be recycled.
Improved separation by householders and businesses at source is needed to collect higher quantities of recyclable packaging materials. Ensuring waste charges to businesses and householders are clearly incentivising reduction and recycling of packaging wastes will support better separation of materials. Continued awareness and enforcement measures are also needed to support better behaviours.
Mr Warren Phelan, (Programme Manager of the EPA’s Circular Economy Programme) noted: “The fall from 62%to 58% recycling in 2021 is disappointing but not unexpected. Better practices are needed by householders and especially businesses, where there are significant opportunities to divert good quality materials from the residual bin. The new levy on waste sent for recovery, and increases to the landfill levy, will reward better practices of segregation provided customer charging is appropriately incentivised.”
The press release today issued by Fine Gael Minister for Justice Mrs Helen McEntee: it’s all just about future voter optics. Would this €10 million not have been better spent invested in health issues like Limerick University Hospital, which has been historically under funded by successive Fianna Fáil & Fianna Gael led governments? Why didn’t Minister for Justice Mrs Helen McEntee just give €1 million to those who are walking the streets of Dublin, currently causing a state of disorder, due to the total absence of authority and parental control? Same funding could have been granted on condition that these rude, crude, uneducated, and uncivilized, barbarous persons stay off the streets of Dublin!
Increased deployment of public order unit and other specialist units in Dublin City Centre.
Overtime will provide up to 48,500 extra Garda hours per month across all Dublin Garda Divisions
Days of Action to be held across Dublin, by Gardaí.
The Minister for Justice, Mrs Helen McEntee TD, has welcomed details announced by Ms Angela Willis, Assistant Garda Commissioner for the Dublin Metropolitan Region, of how the additional €10 million allocation to An Garda Síochána will be used to bolster high visibility policing in Dublin city.
Minister McEntee last month announced the additional funding for Garda overtime, to increase high visibility policing in the Dublin Metropolitan Region.
The Minister is committed to ensuring Dubliners working and living in our capital, and those who visit the city, are safe and feel safe. An enhanced visible policing presence is central to achieving this objective and Minister McEntee is in regular contact with An Garda Síochána in this regard.
She welcomed the detail provided today by Assistant Commissioner Willis on how the additional €10 million is being spent, and will be spent, to provide consistent high visibility policing in the capital.
This includes:
Increased deployment of the Garda National Public Order Unit in the city centre, with €2m of the €10million dedicated to increased public order capacity An enhanced visible Garda presence at strategic locations in Dublin city centre Uniformed Gardaí supported in the city centre by the Garda Air Support Unit, the Garda Mounted Unit, the Garda Dog Unit, Regional Armed Response Units, and Road Policing Units to enhance visibility in the city centre Planned days of high impact operations in the city centre and across all DMR divisions High visibility patrols on the transport network and near transport services An enhanced Operation Citizen, including a focus on tackling street level drug dealing, anti-social behaviour and the seizure of alcohol in the city centre
Minister McEntee said: “As Minister for Justice I am committed to ensuring that Gardaí have the resources they need to build stronger, safer communities. This additional funding will help with the Garda commitment to continue to protect Dublin communities and ensure that the city is a safe place for all to live, work and visit.I am pleased that the plans now in place by the Garda Commissioner, Assistant Commissioner Willis and Garda management will deliver high visibility policing in the capital to support safety in Dublin. While policing alone cannot solve many of the factors which contribute to criminality or people feeling unsafe, high visibility policing is crucial to providing reassurance for all who live in, work in or visit our capital city. I also look forward in the coming weeks to launching the Community Safety Plan for Dublin’s north inner city. This plan, drawn up by the Community Safety Partnership which I established, recognises that increasing safety is not just the responsibility of An Garda Síochána alone. It also requires significant input from the local community and other State services, such as local authorities, health, education and others. But nobody knows better than local communities how to increase safety in their areas – and that is why the community is centrally involved in drawing up these plans.”
The North Inner City Local Community Safety Partnerships (LCSPs) is one of three pilots established by Minister McEntee, ahead of the rollout of the partnerships locally next year. The Dublin LCSP is due to publish its Community Safety Plan in the coming weeks.
Minister McEntee added: “In the coming weeks, I will also announce the latest round of funding grants under the Community Safety Innovation fund, which I established to reinvest the ill-gotten proceeds of crime as seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau into local projects to improve community safety.”
Budget 2023 also reflects the commitment of Government to ensuring that our communities are safe and that An Garda Síochána has the resources required to operate effectively. The budget provided by Government to the Garda Commissioner continues to increase to unprecedented levels, with an allocation of more than €2 billion for 2023.
Minister McEntee said that Garda recruitment is now accelerating after a Covid enforced pause, with new classes both entering and graduating from the Garda College in Templemore every three months.
The Minister said: “We are seeing numbers consistently increase in Templemore. 135 trainees entered the training college in February and another 154 in May. Another class of 174, the largest class since Covid, entered the college at the end of July, continuing the building momentum in recruitment. 100 new Gardaí have attested so far this year; another 470 will be in active training – and two more classes are due into Templemore in October and December. And I also look forward to attending the graduation of the next class in October, as well as working with colleagues in Government to ensure this strong pipeline of recruits is maintained. Along with Minister of State James Browne (Fianna Fáil), I am also committed to further expanding the number of Youth Diversion Programmes, which do hugely valuable work, across the country.”
Through the Youth Justice Strategy 2021-2027 the Department of Justice is broadening and deepening the services provided by the network of Youth Diversion Projects across the State.
This puts a focus on Early Intervention and Family Support programmes for children at risk, as well as access to appropriate Education, Training and Youth Services.
The Department of Justice is currently funding eight Youth Diversion Projects covering the Dublin City Centre area (specifically Dublin 1, 7 and 8) and is committed to expanding the number of YDPs across the country.
Funding for Youth Diversion Projects is provided by the Department of Justice and co-financed by the European Social Fund’s ESF+ Programme.
Do you ever get the sense that your phone battery doesn’t last as long as it used to? Have you ever had a laptop refuse to turn on, only to find out that it still works when plugged into the mains? Why batteries behave the way they do over time in our appliances and what you can do once they’re spent is explained in another great video from Ted Ed Daily. Watch hereunder. Why do batteries die in the first place? And what should you do with them once they’re spent?
Almost all batteries, even single-use batteries, are theoretically rechargeable. That’s because the metals and other chemicals are still there in the battery. So chemically speaking, a dead battery is actually not that different from a fresh one.
Ireland’s 2022 Greenhouse Gas Emissions show a welcome decrease, but much work remains to be done
Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 1.9% (1.19 Mt CO2eq) in 2022, driven by higher fuel prices, increased renewable energy, behavioural change and regulation.
Power generation emissions decreased by 1.9% due to a reduction in coal, oil and peat use and more renewable energy.
Agriculture emissions decreased by 1.2% driven by reduced fertiliser use which offset the impact of an increase in livestock numbers.
Residential emissions decreased by 12.7% with the impact of higher fuel prices, new regulations that ban the use of smoky fuel and milder weather evident.
Transport emissions increased by 6% in 2022 as the COVID rebound continues.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has today published its provisional greenhouse gas emissions for Ireland for 2022. The figures show a reduction of 1.9% compared to 2021, with emission reductions in all key sectors, except Transport.
In total, 60.76 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2eq) were emitted excluding emissions from Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF).
The report highlights that 47% of Ireland’s Carbon Budget for 2021-2025 has been used in the first 2 years. An extremely challenging annual reduction of 12.4% is required for each of the remaining years if Ireland is to stay within the Budget.
The figures also show that Ireland exceeded its 2022 annual limit under the European Union’s Effort Sharing Regulation (EU 2018/842). These annual limits have been reduced further from 2023 onwards as Ireland’s Effort Sharing commitment increased from a 30% reduction on the 2005 level by 2030 to a 42% reduction.
Commenting on the figures Ms Laura Burke, Director General, EPA said: “An overall emissions reduction is welcome, and it is encouraging to see the impact of action across key economic sectors. Drivers for this reduction were higher fossil fuel prices and associated behavioural change, more renewable energy, and the impact of regulation such as the nationwide ban on smoky fuels in home heating.
She added “While welcome, this decrease in emissions needs to be significantly ramped up. We need faster progress on the actions set out in national climate action plans to decarbonise and transform all sectors of Ireland’s economy, to stay within National Carbon Budgets and reduce our Greenhouse Gas emissions by 51 per cent by 2030.”
A summary of the trends from key sectors:
Energy Industries: Emissions decreased by 1.8% despite a 2.1% increase in overall electricity demand. The reductions were driven by reductions in coal, oil and peat used in electricity generation (-16.1, -29.1 and -24.8% respectively). These reductions, however, were largely offset by the highest gas usage since 2010 (up 12.6% compared to 2021). The emissions intensity of electricity generation declined to 331g CO2/kWh in 2022 (from 348g CO2/kWh in 2021) due to increased renewable energy, but remained above 2020 levels.
Agriculture: Emissions overall decreased by 1.2% or 0.29 Mt CO2eq in 2022. A welcome decrease of 14% in nitrogen fertiliser use, to 343,000 tonnes, made significant progress towards the 330,000 tonne target for 2025 in the Climate Action Plan and resulted in 0.44 Mt CO2eq less emissions from agriculture. These reductions offset the impact of higher dairy cow numbers which increased for the 12th successive year. Total milk production increased by 0.7% in 2022, with milk output per cow decreasing slightly (-0.2 per cent).
Residential: Emissions decreased significantly by 12.7 per cent to 6.1 Mt CO2 eq. The main drivers for the decrease included a large rise in fossil fuel prices, warmer weather and new nationwide solid fuel regulations that ban the use of smoky fuel in home heating.
Transport: Emissions increased by 6% (to 11.63 Mt CO2 eq), following a similar increase in 2021. Overall higher transport activity – both private cars and freight transport – is eroding the impact of electric vehicles. In 2022, there were 72,000 battery electric (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric (PHEVs) which is approximately 37% of the Climate Action Plan target for 2025. Emissions in this sector in 2022 were 4.6% below the pre-pandemic level seen in 2019.
Land-Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULULCF): This sector accounted for 10.7% of the total emissions in 2022 (including LULUCF) and decreased by 0.5%. The main source of emissions is from grasslands on organic soils that have been drained for agricultural production. Net grassland emissions were 6.8 Mt CO2 eq in 2022 while Forest land became a net source in 2022 (0.4 Mt CO2 eq) as more trees reached harvesting age.
Commenting, Ms Mary Frances Rochford, Programme Manager, EPA said: “Current decarbonisation actions are being outpaced by increased energy demand across the economy and dependence on fossil fuels for energy generation. A significant increase in Transport emissions in 2022 highlights the fact that a growing economy, with high employment, will continue to produce emissions if we do not break the link and decouple emissions from increased activity by using cleaner and alternatives sources of energy.”
The Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory 1990 to 2022 is available on the EPA website and the EPA Greenhouse Gas web resource is also available online HERE.
Further information: Emily Williamson, EPA Media Relations Office Tel: 053-9170770(24 hours) or media@epa.ie
Approximately 800,000 tonnes of food waste is generated in Ireland each year.
Ireland has committed to halving food waste by 2030 under UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3.
Signing the Food Waste Charter is a pledge to take action to reduce food waste.
Membership of the Food Waste Charter is open to businesses that produce, process, manufacture, distribute or sell food and drink and to supporting organisations that commit to championing the Food Waste Charter within their areas of responsibility.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today launched a new Food Waste Charter, calling on all businesses and State Agencies operating across the food supply chain to sign up and commit to reducing food waste. Building on the success of the first charter – which launched in 2017 and focused on the grocery retail sector—this new, more ambitious Charter, expands the call to action to every organisation in Ireland’s food supply chain.
Businesses signing up to the Food Waste Charter voluntarily commit to measure their food waste, set targets and take action to reduce food waste, and to report annually on progress.
The EPA’s Director General Ms Laura Burke, Minister Ossian Smyth (Minister of State with responsibility for Public Procurement, eGovernment and Circular Economy), Minister Charlie McConalogue (Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine), and a number of supporting State Agencies and champion food sector businesses signed the Food Waste Charter at an event today at Farmleigh House, pledging their commitment to this Government of Ireland initiative.
Ms Laura Burke, EPA Director General, said: “With almost 800,000 tonnes of food waste generated in Ireland annually, meeting Ireland’s commitment to halve food waste by 2030 is very challenging, and we don’t have much time. We need to work together; every business along the food supply chain and in the food services sector must play their part to reduce food waste. These businesses are called on to sign the Food Waste Charter and make a commitment to prevent food waste.
Reducing food waste is an important climate action, with global food waste accounting for approximately 10% of global GHG emissions. Food waste is also costly, and many food and drink businesses are looking at more efficient production processes and innovation to reduce and prevent food waste. By signing up and actively engaging with the Food Waste Charter, businesses will have the opportunity to support their climate action goals and reduce their costs.”
Speaking at the event, Minister Ossian Smyth, Minister of State with responsibility for Public Procurement, eGovernment and Circular Economy said: “The Government is committed to making the circular economy a reality in Ireland and tackling food waste is one of the key steps the food sector must take to help us to a more sustainable pattern of production and consumption.
Signing up to the Food Waste Charter is a public demonstration of commitment to a collaborative and collective manner to address food waste. Wasting food that we produce and buy is not only a waste of money but a mismanagement of valuable resources in a time when we all need to make a concerted effort to protect and use our resources wisely.”
Minister Charlie McConalogue, Minister for Agriculture Food and the Marine said: “We all have a role to play in reducing food waste. I call on all stakeholders in the agri-food sector to sign up to the Food Waste Charter and pledge to participate in collective efforts to reduce food waste and food loss and to help ensure there is accuracy and consistency of measurement of food waste across the food supply chain.
Food is a precious and valuable resource. Reducing food waste helps our farmers, fishers, other food producers and our processors to be more viable and resilient, will help us to achieve our climate action targets and improve the sustainability of the food sector. When we reduce our food waste we show our respect for the safe and nutritious food that our primary producers and processors work all year round to provide.”
Businesses that sign up to the Food Waste Charter commit to measure (monitor and track their food waste), reduce (identify and take at least one target-based action to reduce food waste) and report (annually on progress towards measurable outcomes and achievements) on their food waste.
For more information see: The Food Waste Charter. State Agencies play a key role in supporting the food and drink sector in Ireland. Today five State Agencies (Bord Bia, Bord Iascaigh Mhara, Enterprise Ireland, Fáilte Ireland and Teagasc) pledged their commitment to the Food Waste Charter.
Further information on the Food Waste Charter and how to sign up can be found at www.foodwastecharter.ie
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