Business in Ireland 2025 – Circular Economy and Resource Use

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (30 April 2026) published Business in Ireland 2025 - Circular Economy and Resource Use.

This is the third in a series of releases that brings together relevant enterprise economy statistics from a variety of outputs and looks at them through the lens of sustainability to provide greater insights around sustainability and climate targets (See Editor’s Note for more detail). 

Commenting on the release, Morgan O’Donnell, Statistician in the Sustainability, Circular Economy & Transport division said: “Sustainability is of increasing importance to enterprises, in terms of meeting environmental regulations and expectations, but also from an economic and social perspective.

There is increasing national and international recognition that economic growth alone is not a sufficient measure of success, and that long term prosperity depends on achieving a balanced integration of economic, environmental, and social outcomes. This release is the third in a series which attempts to build that broader picture and provide greater insights for enterprises around sustainability and climate targets.

The circular economy and how resources are used is important for the Irish economy as it can impact sustainability, costs, competitiveness, and environmental impact. Using resources more efficiently could lead to reduced material extraction from the environment, and reduced reliance on imports, resulting in environmental and economic benefits.

Resource Use

The economy consumes raw materials (such as metals, minerals, biomass and fossil fuels) to support economic activity. These raw materials are sourced either through domestic extraction or imports.

Reducing the volume of material inputs could deliver both economic and environmental benefits. Lower material use could reduce production costs, while decreased reliance on imports may lessen exposure to price volatility and supply shocks. At the same time, reduced extraction could mitigate resource depletion, as well as lower levels of waste and pollution.

• Most of the raw materials extracted from the Irish environment in 2023 related to construction at 55% of the total (e.g. Crushed rock and Sand & gravel) and agriculture at 42% of total domestic extraction (e.g. Grazed biomass and Fodder crops).
• The Irish economy saw a large increase in domestic extraction between 2014 and 2023 up more than a fifth to 121million tonnes. This was largely driven by a rise in the raw materials needed for construction related activity (e.g. Crushed rock and Sand & gravel).
• Ireland has a high dependence on imports for certain materials which are important to economic activity, including energy (for which we have an import dependence of 80%).
• In terms of decoupling economic performance from resource use, Ireland’s economy is becoming less resource-intensive and is consuming less material per unit of economic activity, with resource productivity, based on Modified Gross National Income (GNI*), increasing by 38% between 2010 and 2023.
• The Green Economy produces the goods and services that help to make the economy more efficient in terms of resources and emissions. Gross value added (GVA) of the Green Economy was €5 billion in 2023, representing 1.7% of Ireland’s Modified Gross National Income (GNI*).
• Employment in the Green Economy grew by 13% in 2023 and is now 49% higher than in 2014, at 48,400 full-time equivalents (FTEs).

Energy Use and Import Dependency

The enterprise economy requires energy to sustain economic activity, and in Ireland there is a high dependence on imported energy, particularly fossil fuels.

Decreasing energy consumption and shifting away from imported fossil fuels could support a more resilient, sustainable and competitive economy. For enterprises, improved energy efficiency may reduce operating costs, improving competitiveness, while enterprises that depend less on fossil fuels may be less exposed to volatility in energy prices and supply disruption.

From an environmental perspective, lower fossil fuel use could lead to reduced greenhouse gas emissions, helping to contribute to Irelands national and international targets of reducing emissions by 51% by 2030 (compared with 2018 levels) and to achieving climate neutrality by 2050.

• In 2024, Ireland’s total primary energy requirement remained heavily fossil fuel dependent, with 81% of the energy requirement satisfied by fossil fuels.
• Oil accounted for 60% of Ireland’s fossil fuel energy requirement, followed by natural gas (36%), coal (2%) and peat (1%) in 2024.
• The enterprise economy relies significantly on energy supplies to maintain activity, with transport fuels (mainly for aviation), and natural gas accounting for three quarters (75%) of energy consumed by the enterprise economy in 2023.
• In 2024, Ireland’s energy import dependency was 80%, the fourth highest in the EU, after Malta, Luxembourg and Cyprus, and significantly ahead of the EU average of 57%.
• Imports of electricity represented 16% of total final consumption of electricity in 2024, up from 5% in 2022 and 12% in 2023.
• Ireland generally holds around 90 days’ worth of oil stocks, in line with most EU members states, though some of these reserves may be held outside the EU to meet this requirement. In September 2025, Ireland held 86 days’ worth of EU-based stocks, while five member states held at least 100 days, with Finland at 184 days holding significantly more than other EU member states.

Waste Generation and Treatment

The level of waste generated in Ireland is important to sustainability because of its impact on the need to extract raw materials, as well as related energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Most waste generated in Ireland comes from the enterprise economy, with 86% of waste generated in 2022 coming from Industry (including Construction) and Services sectors.

• Ireland generated 15.3 million tonnes of waste in 2022, up 21% since 2012 - largely due to the growth in waste generated by increased activity in the Construction sector, which accounted for almost two-thirds (65%) of the increase in waste volumes.
• Manufacturing activities (31%) and Construction (19%) accounted for half of the waste generated in Ireland in 2022, while across the EU, Construction was the largest contributor to waste generation, generating 39% of all waste, followed by Mining & Quarrying at 22%.
• Ireland had the ninth lowest level of waste generated per capita in the EU in 2022, at 2.9 tonnes per capita, compared to the EU average of 5.0 tonnes per capita.
• Comparing Ireland to other EU countries, the proportion of treated waste that was backfilled is significantly higher in Ireland (52%) than the EU average (14%), while the proportion of treated waste that was recycled in Ireland (11%) was much lower than the EU average (41%).
• Between 2010 and 2022 waste that was landfilled in Ireland fell in terms of both volume, down from 3.8 million tonnes to 2.6 million tonnes, and as a proportion of total waste treated, down from 40% to 19%.
• In 2023, 94% of packaging waste was recovered, up 2% from 2022, but up significantly from the average annual figure of 38% for the 2000 to 2004 period.

Editor's Note

This release is the third in a series of releases that will leverage existing data sources to provide insight on different aspects of sustainability from an enterprise perspective. The previous releases looked at Emissions and Energy Use by Enterprises, and Sustainability through Innovation and Technology.

The broad policy context relates to national and European Union (EU) climate action plans which state as their objective to be at “net zero” by 2050 and national policy for Irish-based enterprises to succeed through competitive advantage founded on sustainability, innovation, and productivity.

Sustainability is a multi-faceted concept that focuses on balancing environmental, economic and social considerations. Put simply, it is development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainability is of increasing importance to enterprises, in terms of meeting environmental regulations and expectations, but also from an economic and social perspective.

Future releases in this series will look at topics such as deglobalisation, and demographic changes and how these may affect the enterprise economy in terms of sustainability and productivity.