Household Environmental Behaviours - Waste and Recycling 2024

In this chapter, we will discuss how Irish households reuse items in 2024, in line with the policy objectives of increasing the size of the circular economy (countries must report on reuse levels by households under the revised Waste Framework Directive and Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/19). “Reuse” is defined as any operation by which products or components that are not waste are used again for the same purpose for which they were conceived. It does not include items which are recycled or ‘prepared for reuse’ which involves the items entering the waste stream and undergoing some form of treatment.

The chapter highlights reuse in six specific product categories:

1. Clothing
2. Textiles
3. Electronic equipment
4. Furniture
5. Construction materials
6. Other products

The survey asked the respondents to report how many items they acquired for each category and how did they acquire it (bought/received as a private gift, donation or swap, bought in a second-hand shop or marketplace, and bought through an online platform).

The findings from certain tables are discussed below. What the data highlights, across the range of products highlighted above, is that household participation in a lot of areas of the circular economy is still low. The tables highlighting this issue are listed below. The focus in this chapter is placed on areas with more meaningful levels of circular economy activity.

One quarter of households had received 11-50 items clothing by a private/gift/donation/swap in 2024

Clothing was the most common type of item to be reused, with one quarter (25%) of households having received clothing by a private/gift/donation/swap. See Table 4.1.

• Females are more likely than males to have acquired clothing for reuse across all three ways of acquisition (bought/received as a private gift, donation or swap, bought in a secondhand shop or marketplace, bought through an online platform). Three in four (75%) males have not bought a second-hand clothing item in a second-hand shop or marketplace compared to 62% of females. See Figure 4.1 and Table 4.2..

Nearly one in ten households received or bought 1-10 items of small electronic items as a private gift/donation/swap

9% of Irish households received or bought 1-10 items of small electronic items as a private gift/donation/swap and a further 7% received or bought 11-50 items. See Table 4.3.

• Households with 3 or more persons under 18 years bought small electronic items through an online platform at a higher rate (11%) than households with 2 persons (8%) or 1 person (5%) under 18 years. See Table 4.4.
• Owner-occupied households were less likely than rented households to acquire small furniture items by a private/gift/donation/swap than rented households, with 84% saying they have acquired no items compared to 76% of rented households saying the received no items. See Table 4.5.