Recycling Policy
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-18
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Matt Carthy (SF), Cavan-Monaghan

The lack of information and movement coming from the Department in this respect are completely unacceptable. The Government was quick to impose this charge on consumers but it has refused point blank to impose a charge on the use of virgin plastic, for example, something that would put a burden on the companies that are using virgin plastic, which is non-recyclable plastic. There are companies in this country that have the ability to recycle this product but Re-Turn sells the plastic to the highest bidder, regardless of the purpose or country. It means that people who are thinking they are doing the right thing recycling their plastic bottles can see their product going half way across the world in a way that no one could describe as being environmentally responsible. I will ask the question again.
Will the Minister of State take a hands-on approach? Rather than just taking the word of Re-Turn or Repak, will he ensure his Department is fully across every single detail and is not allowing something that is penalising Irish consumers or potentially putting Irish companies at risk by the actions that Re-Turn might be taking?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:29+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-18