The Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy (WAPCE), Ireland’s National Waste Policy for the period 2020 to 2025, sets out an overall policy and regulatory approach to support the development of adequate and appropriate treatment capacity at indigenous facilities to ensure that the full circularity and resource potential of materials is captured in Ireland. This policy and regulatory framework is intended to create the market conditions required to support indigenous capacity by ensuring that the right material ends up in the right bin, and in a suitable condition, thus making it available for separate collection and subsequent recycling, reuse, or repair.
Incentivised pricing systems backed by strong and consistent enforcement also play a key role. The measures outline in the WAPCE provide a significant incentive to drive segregation, increasing the value of the contents of recycling bins and brown bins and thereby creating the necessary conditions to support the viability of indigenous recycling capacity as well as composting and digestate facilities. The Regional Waste Management Planning Offices launched a new National Waste Management Plan in March 2024 which sets out the required actions at local and regional levels to deliver on the WAPCE and support Ireland's circular economy transition.
My Department is also commissioning a comprehensive study to explore the feasibility, potential benefits and risks associated with transitioning our waste collection system from its current model of side-by-side market competition to a franchise tendering system for local authority areas or regions. The recommendations from this study will inform the next iteration of the WAPCE, while the publication of Ireland’s second Circular Economy Strategy later this year will stimulate investment in climate-resilient infrastructure, by focusing on measures that enhance our capacity to transform waste into secondary materials and seek to create a culture of circular behaviour through demonstration projects, community initiatives, and awareness campaigns.
