Some half a million household appliances, including 78,000 televisions and 85,000 fridge freezers have been recycled in the State since last August under an EU recycling scheme.
Minister for the Environment Dick Roche today hailed the WEEE recycling initiative as "a remarkable success story".
Donal Buckley, Ibec
Under the EU directive, stores selling electrical appliances are obliged to impose a charge for their recycling and to accept similar items from customers 'trading up' for new goods.
Presenting a progress report on the WEEE scheme, which came into effect on August 13th last year, Mr Roche said they showed a clear indication of the public's willingness to grapple with the waste problem.
"By the end of May this year 21,500 tonnes were collected nationally, equivalent to an annual collection rate of 6.8kg per person," he said.
"Our EU target is to reach 4kg per person by end 2008. This performance would place us on course to achieving 170 per cent of our target within the first 12 months and to double our EU target by end 2008."
Almost half a million household appliances, including 85,000 fridges and freezers and 78,000 TVs and almost 40,000 power tools have been recycled to date.
"These figures confound some of the doom-laden prophecies that were being bandied about last year," Mr Roche said.
He added that Ireland was one of the leading countries in Europe in its implementation of the WEEE directive on recycling electrical goods. And he said the legislation had not had adverse impacts on sales or on employment in the sector.
Instead it had led to the creation of new two recycling facilities with a third in the pipeline and the creation of approximately 200 direct new jobs. A monitoring group has been set up to advise the minister on the continued implementation of the WEEE directives.
Kathleen Lynch, Labour Party
The business and employers' lobby group Ibec welcomed the five-fold increase in recycling of electronic goods since the scheme came into force.
Head of Ibec's environment unit Donal Buckley said: "Over 200 new direct jobs have been created by the implementation of this directive and many more indirectly. The establishment of recycling facilities in Ireland is very encouraging and shows that business has capitalised on the commercial opportunities the collection of WEEE presents."
Labour Party consumer affairs spokesperson Kathleen Lynch also welcomed the announcement but she said consumers should never have been forced to pay the recycling charge for electrical items.
"While I would welcome the fact that electrical goods are indeed being recycled, the way the scheme was introduced has placed the financial cost of the take-back on the consumer, not the producer. This totally flies in the face of the polluter pays principle," she said.
"Before this scheme was introduced, Minister Roche promised us that the manufacturer would pay the charges, and that they would not be passed on to the public. Sadly, that promise went the way of the many other pledges made by Fianna Fáil and the PDs, forcing hardworking families to pick up the bill."