THE GREEN PARTY’S Eamon Ryan caused consternation in the Dáil this afternoon when he unveiled a bag of his plastic household waste to the chamber.
Calling on the government to do more to tackle waste, Ryan showed off all the plastic waste he had accumulated from his cupboards in the last week.
The display did not go down too well with the Leas Ceann Comhairle, Pat the Cope Gallagher, who rang the bell, urging him to stop displaying his rubbish.
“We are in the House of Parliament on national television,” said the Leas Ceann Comhairle.
As Ryan began listing off all the types of plastics he had in his bag, Gallagher told him that advertisements were not allowed in the chamber.
“I would ask you to remove that from your desk, there must be dignity in the House… normally you act in a dignified fashion, I would urge you to act in that way,” he said.
“We are drowning in plastics,” replied Ryan.
He said more needs to be done to make it easy for people to recycle.
We have to cut out the waste, it is not easy, but it takes attention.
He asked the Taoiseach would the government support the Green Party’s waste reduction bill, which proposes a new set of measures aimed at improving how Ireland recycles its waste.
It aims to give cash back for those that recycle plastics, as well as ban plastic coffee cups which he said are not recyclable.
He suggested that a deposit scheme on plastic bottles would increase recycling rates.
It is understood that the department have investigated if such a scheme that operates in other countries, like the US, would work in Ireland.
However, it’s believed that plastic recycling rates would not increase substantially and the administrative costs of setting up and operating a new scheme would be greater that the rewards.
Minister Denis Naughten is also understood to have held discussions with the main coffee shop retailers in a bid to tackle the issue of non-recycable disposable coffee cups.
Varadkar told the Dáil that they would consider the bill when it comes to the floor of the House.
He also pointed out that Naughten is proposing to place large-scale recycling facilities outside supermarkets so that people can recycle before they bring their goods home, as was reported by TheJournal.ie this week.
The Taoiseach said he wants to make it “easier for people to do the right thing or do the right choices” which is why there will be an increase in the roll-out of brown recycling bins to households. r.
Ryan said that 150 million tonnes of plastic ends up in the sea, stating that more needs to be done.
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