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Environment - Resource Use and Circular Economy

Environment – Resource Use and Circular Economy

CSO statistical publication, , 11am
A CSO Frontier Series Output

This publication is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as it may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example new administrative data sources.

Introduction

In this chapter, we learn that Construction and Demolition Activities were the largest generators of waste in both Ireland and the EU in 2020. We see that when mineral waste is excluded, waste generated in Ireland decreased between 2018 and 2020. However, waste generated by the Household, Manufacturing, and the Water and Sewerage sectors increased over the period. Hazardous waste produced in Ireland decreased between 2010 and 2020, but remains above the EU average. The proportion of waste recycled in Ireland in 2020 was below the EU average, but 90% of packaging waste was recovered in 2021.

In 2020, 32.6% of waste generated in Ireland was from Construction and Demolition

In 2020, 32.6% of Ireland's total waste was generated from Construction and Demolition Activities, 22.4% was from Manufacturing and 12.6% was from activities producing Waste water. In the EU27, 37.5% of waste resulted from Construction and Demolition Activities, 23.4% was from Mining and Quarrying, 10.8% was from Waste water Activities and 10.6% resulted from Manufacturing. See Figure 5.1 and Table 5.1.

IrelandEU27
Mining and quarrying9.3725043668080523.388193783514
Manufacturing22.363281991828910.6488080038998
Energy0.976369057548242.32688781076627
Waste/water12.585918025241210.7996935862021
Construction and demolition32.597852289456237.4739432205947
Other economic activities10.11212118947635.91796466956057
Households11.99195307964119.44450892546252
Table 5.1 - Waste generation by economic activities and households, 2020

In 2020, 7.45 million tonnes of waste were generated in Ireland, decreasing from 7.84 million tonnes in 2018

In 2020, 7.45 million tonnes of waste were generated in Ireland, decreasing from 7.84 million tonnes in 2018, this represents a decline of 4.9%. Of the waste generated in Ireland in 2020, Water Supply, Sewerage etc. accounted for 1.94 million tonnes, Households for 1.92 million tonnes and Manufacturing 1.81 million tonnes. See Figure 5.2 and Table 5.2.

20122014201620182020
Agriculture, forestry and fishing9625196251105033296865275414
Manufacturing25232301471941235748616732461815147
Electricity, gas, steam etc.367982319317311521146727119633
Water supply; sewerage, etc.19369083024621207882114793471944943
Construction698746838093955101751353033
Services (excl sale of waste)14172541215735191345125486551004242
Households16490231514985150208015803221923311
Other3976548873294161508919261
Table 5.2 - Generation of waste by waste category (excluding major mineral waste) and NACE Rev. 2 activity, 2012-2020

Hazardous waste generated by Ireland dropped from 10% of total waste in 2010 to 5.5% in 2020

The total amount of hazardous waste generated in Ireland declined to 5.5% in 2020 down from 10% in 2010. In 2020, hazardous waste accounted for 4.4% of total waste produced in the EU27. See Figure 5.3 and Table 5.3.

20102020
Ireland9.956811496363065.47792238318684
EU274.103664874147054.43510759302676
Table 5.3 - Hazardous waste generated by country, 2010 and 2020

In 2020, 32.6% of Ireland's treated waste went for recycling, the EU27 average was 39.9%

In 2020, 36.2% of waste treated in Ireland resulted in heat recovery from incineration, 32.6% went for recycling and 28.3% went to landfill. In the EU27, 40.4% of waste went to landfill, 39.9% was recycled and 6.5% resulted in heat recovery from incineration. See Figure 5.4 and Table 5.4.

CountryIrelandEU27
Recovery - recycling32.575011632803639.9104891130608
Recovery - backfilling2.6143728660404412.6639637491057
Energy recovery36.21236527126236.53876014228374
Disposal - landfill and other28.305097439309940.3895042903319
Disposal - incineration without energy recovery0.30.5
Table 5.4 - Waste treatment by type of recovery and disposal, 2020

Ireland's material footprint per capita was 49.3kg in 2019

Material footprint refers to the total amount of raw materials extracted to meet final consumption demands. It is one indication of the pressures placed on the environment to support economic growth and social activity. The material footprint rose in Ireland from 117.5 million tonnes in 2010 to 240.5 by 2019. The material footprint per person also rose over this time period, from 25.8 kg to 49.3 kg. Material footprint per GDP decreased from 2.0 to 1.7 US dollars per kg between 2010 and 2019. See Figure 5.5 and Table 5.5.

X-axis labelMaterial Footprint
2015129.8936
2016151.1378
2017148.7491
2018179.4908
2019240.471
Table 5.5 - Material footprint, material footprint per capita and material footprint per GDP, 2010-2019

In 2021, 90% of Ireland's packaging waste was recovered

The recovery rate of packaging waste in Ireland increased from 25% in 2001 to 94% in 2019, before falling to 90% in 2021. See Figure 5.6 and Table 5.6.

Recovery rate
2001-2004 average39
2005-2009 average63
2010-2014 average84
201591
201688
201786
201891
201994
202093
202190
Table 5.6 - Recovery of packaging waste, 2001-2021