Sinn Féin TD for Cavan Monaghan, Matt Carthy, has urged the Tánaiste and government to end the "scandal" that has resulted in almost 90% of the plastic that is collected under the Deposit Return Scheme being shipped around the world.
Deputy Carthy expressed his frustrations over plastic "needlessly" being shipped out of the country, despite a company in Co Monaghan being in a position to collect and recycle the material.
Speaking in the Dáil today, Deputy Carthy challenged Tánaiste Simon Harris to ensure that government addresses this issue which he said ran contrary to the environmental objective that the scheme is meant to address.
Deputy Carthy stated: "Here’s the scandal. By June of this year 17,000 tonnes of plastic will have been collected under the scheme. But only 3,400 of that will have been recycled in Ireland. That means that 88% of plastic collected under this ‘environmental’ scheme is actually being shipped off to locations across the world. This is madness from an environmental point of view. Will the Tánaiste work with government to immediately investigate this issue and knock heads together to end what is a scandalous situation?"
In response Tánaiste Simon Harris agreed to engage with Environment Minister, Darragh O'Brien, on the issue and acknowledged that the figures cited appeared to be surprising.
