I note the articles referred to by the Deputy date from 2023 and 2024 and that neither article refers to PET materials collected by a deposit return scheme.
The Deposit Return Scheme, or DRS, was introduced in February 2024 to encourage more people to recycle plastic bottles and cans and to deliver on our ambitious EU targets for the recycling of those products.
The collection, processing and recycling of containers returned via the Deposit Return Scheme is an operational matter for the DRS operator, Re-turn, however the company has confirmed to me that all material collected is sorted and baled at a contracted facility in Limerick, before it is sold for recycling on the open market. Plastic of food-grade quality, such as the DRS material, is highly valuable. It is recycled, often into new food-grade pellet and sold to make new food or drinks containers or other valuable products.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has responsibility for collating and reporting official waste-related statistics for Ireland to the EU. The Agency's statistics webpage for single use plastics can be accessed here: www.epa.ie/our-services/monitoring--assessment/waste/national-waste-statistics/single-use-plastics/
On the broader matter of recycling plastic packaging waste, many EU countries struggle to recycle sufficiently, mainly due to economic factors such as costs and competition from cheap virgin plastics. In response to these difficulties, a new EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation has been introduced. The new Regulation, which comes into effect in August this year, contains a range of measures to be introduced on a staggered basis, aimed at reducing packaging waste generation and increasing plastic recycling rates by creating a greater market demand for recyclate.
