Irish people generate more packaging waste and recycle less than citizens in all other EU member states, according to a new study.
It shows 820,000 tonnes of Irish packaging waste was generated in 2001, compared to 1.1 million tonnes in Austria, a country with twice Ireland's population.
The report by the European Environment Agency on packaging waste also highlights loopholes in legislation and waste practices in the Republic that allow producers of waste to avoid their responsibilities required under EU directives.
It notes that Repak - the company in charge of recycling in the Republic - estimates that in 2004 there were 700 firms not complying with waste-management obligations. This compares to 1,050 so-called "free riders" - companies that used the waste-management systems but did not pay for the service - in 2001.
Another stakeholder interviewed for the report, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, noted that there was a loophole in how the EU directive on waste was transposed into Irish law. The Irish regulations did not emphasise prevention and reduction of waste packaging. It said this enabled major producers of waste to pay waste contractors a price equivalent to recycling the amount of waste they supplied without ever having to accept waste back from the public.
The report's study of official recycling and waste statistics shows Irish people generated an average of 214kg of waste in 2001, significantly above the EU average of 174kg that year.
It also found that in the same year, Ireland had the lowest recycling rate, at 27 per cent of all packaged waste. This compared to a high of 75 per cent in Germany. Ireland's poor historical performance had earlier forced the Government to seek a derogation for not meeting a Europe-wide target of 50 per cent recycling of waste.