Report
of Packaging Waste in Ireland
1.Introduction
In terms of the packaging wastes data in Ireland,
the most believable database belongs to the Environmental Protection Agency. The
EPA’s packaging wastes data is divided by 2 major parts, including the
packaging waste landfilled and packaging waste recycled. The landfilled
packaging waste was through waste composition factors to estimate the total
household and commercial waste amount which was landfilled. At the same time,
the recyclers and exporters should provide the recycled packaging waste data (EPA National Wastes Database Report ,2001).
The format of EPA’s data on packaging wastes had changed every several years in
the past decade. But the completeness of data is still at a high level.
2.Packaging wastes
basic data in Ireland
The
author of this report determined to pick up the annual packaging waste
statistics data from EPA’s National Wastes Reports from the year 2001 to 2012.
The data covered 12-year Irish best-estimated annual packaging wastes
quantitative account as below,
Gross Quantity
(Tonnes)
|
Recovery Quantity
(Tonnes)
|
Recovery Rate
(%)
|
|
2001
|
872,917
|
221,266
|
25.3
|
2002
|
899,125
|
296,389
|
33.0
|
2003
|
1,006,287
|
419,600
|
41.7
|
2004
|
850,911
|
479,540
|
56.4
|
2005
|
925,221
|
554,632
|
59.9
|
2006
|
1,028,472
|
589,519
|
57.3
|
2007
|
1,055,952
|
671,630
|
63.6
|
2008
|
1,026,759
|
664,043
|
64.7
|
2009
|
972,430
|
679,535
|
69.9
|
2010
|
863,714
|
636,933
|
73.7
|
2011
|
863,597
|
682,280
|
79.0
|
2012
|
809,501
|
700,737
|
87.0
|
EPA National Waste
Report 2001~2012
With the data in the table above, using spreadsheet
can draw 2 line charts to show the relationship of Gross Quantity &
Recovery Quantity and Recovery Rate, respectively.
From
the line chart on the left, it showed a significant increase of recovery
quantity of packaging wastes. The lowest gross quantity appeared in 2012 with a
highest recovery quantity amount.
From
the line chart on the right, it showed an increasing of recovery rate of
packaging wastes with the peak of 87.0% in Ireland.
3. Packaging waste recovery process.
The
EPA’s National Waste Reports 2012 showed five significant categories of materials used for
packaging which are in the recovery processes, including glass, plastic, metal,
paper and wood. The EPA’s National Waste Reports informed the three
potential ways to handle the packaging waste, including the landfill,
incineration and recovery. But the most amount of the Irish packaging waste was
exported for recovery. A small amount of imported packaging waste existed at
that same time.
EPA
National Waste Report 2012
4.Conclusion
With
the help of EPA’s database, it showed a clear view of packaging waste
quantitative account in Ireland. The gross amount of packaging waste is around
900,000 tonnes annually. The recovery rate had a stable increase in the period
of 2001 to 2012.
Reference
Environmental
Protection Agency, 2001~2011, ‘National Wastes Report 2001~2012’, Environmental
Protection Agency, Ireland
Available
at: http://www.epa.ie/pubs/reports/waste/stats/#.VuFLBcdeIkx
[Accessed
on: March 8, 2016]
