Manufacturing & Supply Chain

The Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action has published its Report on the Circular Economy, which examines Ireland’s transition to a Circular Economy and recommends a range of measures designed to meet the challenges faced by each sector.

Committee Cathaoirleach Deputy Brian Leddin said: “Two years on from the passage of the Circular Economy Act, the Committee held a series of engagements with stakeholders. The Joint Committee’s Report contains 47 recommendations which the Committee feels can help to meaningfully increase Ireland’s rate of circularity.”

Special Rapporteur to the Joint Committee on the Circular Economy, Deputy Richard Bruton, said: “Perhaps the most impactful legacy of the Covid crisis has been an increased awareness of the risks that arise from global supply chains. Our current ‘Take, Make, Use, Discard’ model ignores the environmental costs along the supply chain. We already use raw materials at a rate 50 per cent higher than nature can replenish each year, and this trend could triple by 2050 if current trends continue. This is unsustainable.

“The Circular Economy model aims to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation by rethinking supply chains entirely. Reimagining how we meet our needs is the hallmark of circular thinking. Despite some innovative initiatives, the circular economy in Ireland remains underdeveloped. The market for materials recovered through recycling is weak and hampers best use of materials. The Repair, Reuse and Refurbishment sectors are very small. The Sharing Sector in Ireland is also in its infancy. Building and car occupancy in Ireland are exceptionally low. Few of our public buildings accommodate different users.”

Deputy Bruton continued: “Making the right choices at the outset is so much better than trying to correct this afterwards. It is estimated that 80 per cent of environmental damage is baked in at the design stage. We should not think of the circular challenge as how we manage waste. Instead, it is about rethinking how we meet our needs in a way that has less adverse impacts and which designs out waste.”

The Committee held engagements with stakeholders in April, May, June and July which provided evidence from a broad perspective. This included an overview from Ossian Smyth TD, Minister of State at the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, and his officials on the state of play since the Circular Economy Act became operational and discussions on how the Circular Economy operates in the food, consumer durables, construction and waste sectors. Arising from these engagements, the Committee makes 47 recommendations in its this report. These include:

• Sectoral compacts should be established across key sectors including Food, Construction, Consumer Durables, Textiles, etc, focusing on a range of key measures designed to meet the challenges faced by each sector;
• New actions to promote the Circular Economy should be integrated into the Climate Action Plan – built into the detailed sectoral planning, the oversight and reporting obligations, and the requirement to adopt plans if targets are not being reached.
• All Local Authorities install Deposit Return Scheme machinery at appropriate locations within their jurisdiction, up to and including machinery capable of handling large quantities of cans and bottles, at the same time;
• The introduction of mandatory monitoring, measurement and reporting of food waste across all parts of the supply chain, along with the mandatory setting of targets and target-based actions across the supply chain in order to effectively reduce food waste;
• To encourage the behavioural changes required in the choice and use of food products, the Committee recommends that information and incentives should be developed to promote better purchasing, storing and consumption of food, avoidance of excess packaging, and optimal separation of disposals;
• The use of best-before dates on fresh produce in the retail sector should be prohibited. This will allow customers to exercise their own judgement to decide on food quality and effectively reduce the approximately 250,000 tonnes of food waste generated by Irish households every year;
• The development of a national programme for tackling the problem of food-waste at farm-level, which currently amounts to around 70,000 tonnes every year;
• In order to support the necessary growth of the reuse and repair sector, the Committee recommends an increase of reliable financial support to social enterprises and businesses operating in the sector. Specifically, members recommend a reduced VAT rate, reduced commercial rates, tax benefits and the implementation of reuse bonus schemes.

Deputy Bruton said: “There are many opportunities to become more circular in how we behave that are within relatively easy reach. These include the greater use of smart controls, shallow retrofits, smart meters, food waste avoidance, guidance for low impact refurbishment, changing the choice of building materials, better waste separation, more public charging networks, sharing platforms for travel and others uses, rightsizing supports, packaging free areas in larger supermarkets, remote health delivery. They all represent structural shifts with low upfront costs but significant savings.

“If we are to deliver a circular strategy, a step change is needed. Better design must become a central tool to drive rethinking of the supply chains. Standardisation of what must appear on labels and the verifiability of any claims should occur at pace. Public Procurement should be standardised to align with the new attention to circularity. The creation of new targets and the emergence of new markets are needed to make a Circular Economy model a reality. Tighter regulation of what materials can be used and a consistent methodology for Product Environmental Footprinting are needed.”

Deputy Leddin added: “On behalf of the Committee, I wish to extend sincere gratitude to Deputy Richard Bruton TD for his work as rapporteur which was completed and helped to inform the work of the Committee for the pre-legislative scrutiny of the Circular Economy Bill in 2021-22. I would also like to express my appreciation to all the witnesses for their valuable contributions and to members of the Committee for their dedicated work.”

The Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action has 14 Members, nine from the Dáil and five from the Seanad.

The Committee’s Report on the Circular Economy is available on the Oireachtas website.