9 May 2006

Environment

Reverse Vending Machines

Ciarán Cuffe asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if, in view of the fact that he has recently suggested there were financial reasons for not adopting a reverse vending approach to collecting certain recyclable material (details supplied), a full environmental and financial comparison between reverse vending recycling facilities and those facilities currently used to collect recyclable material has been carried out here; the body which carried out the research; and their terms of reference.

Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (Mr. Roche): Ireland has achieved a significantly improved performance in meeting EU targets for the recovery of packaging waste. Under Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste, Ireland was required to achieve a 25% recovery rate of packaging waste by 1 July 2001, increasing to a 50% recovery rate by 31 December 2005 (with a minimum of 25% to be achieved by recycling, including a minimum 15% recycling rate for each type of packaging material). The 2001 target was achieved on time and furthermore the EPA has reported in its National Waste Report 2004 that packaging waste recycling increased to 56.4% in that year (one year in advance of the latter 2005 deadline).

The regulatory code governing packaging waste is well established. The Waste Management (Packaging) Regulations 2003 (as amended), which replaced earlier regulations introduced in 1997, provide the necessary legal framework to facilitate the recovery and recycling of packaging waste in Ireland. Under the regulations, all producers participating in the placing of packaging on the Irish market, must segregate the packaging waste arising on their own premises into specified waste streams and have it collected for recycling by authorised recovery operators. In addition, major producers i.e. those who have an annual turnover in excess of €1 million and who place more than 25 tonnes of packaging on the Irish market, have additional responsibilities with regard to the recovery of packaging waste from their customers.

Major producers have the option of either complying directly with their producer responsibility obligations (i.e. self-compliance), or alternatively, getting an exemption from those requirements by becoming a member of an approved packaging waste compliance scheme. Practical implementation of the Directive in Ireland is organised mainly through a collective industry-based compliance scheme operated by Repak Limited, which had operated successfully to date.

Our existing approach has been in operation since 1997 and is now firmly embedded among industry, local authorities and other stakeholders alike and is supported by a comprehensive national network of bring banks (1,929 sites) and civic amenity facilities (69 facilities) as well as segregated collection of dry recyclables from domestic households (over 560,000 households).

While no formal study on this matter has been carried out in Ireland, it is inevitable that additional start-up and operational costs would be associated with putting in place a separate, comprehensive and convenient reverse vending network at a national level which could not wholly substitute for the existing infrastructure for materials recovery. This latter infrastructure has been put in place at considerable cost. Account would also have to be taken of the impact of such a network on existing compliance arrangements and their effectiveness in meeting targets for recovery and recycling of packaging waste. The existing compliance scheme is principally funded by major producers and the impact of introducing reverse return systems could significantly undermine these arrangements.

As outlined in the reply to Question No. 108 of 8 March 2006, the introduction of a reverse vending approach to collect specific recyclable materials is not under consideration primarily because Ireland is achieving the required recovery and recycling targets for packaging waste. The priority now is to build on the infrastructure and collection/recycling systems that are already in place in order to ensure continued progress on our national performance with a view to achieving the higher recycling/recovery targets set for 2011 under the revised packaging and packaging waste directive.