Consumers in Ireland recycled 21.1 million electronic and electrical waste items in 2025, up from 18.8 million in 2024, according to new data.
Despite the record performance, the country's largest e-waste recycling scheme has warned that the European measurement system fails to capture the full picture of the nation's recycling progress.
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Ireland said that by measuring recycling as a percentage of sales, the system does not properly reflect longer product lifespans or emerging waste streams.
The organisation's annual report has shown that close to 39,000 tonnes of e-waste were collected nationwide last year, the equivalent of 7,425 truckloads.
Lithium battery collections more than doubled in five years, and more than 1.4 million vape devices were recycled through WEEE Ireland's national takeback scheme.
The report also revealed that 84 per cent of counties increased their WEEE recycling rates year-on-year, while an average of 82 per cent of materials collected were recovered for reuse in manufacturing, exceeding the EU recovery requirement of 80 per cent.
The e-waste haul included 18.5 million small appliances, 1.9 million lighting products, 278,222 TVs and monitors and 123,060 fridge-freezers. 1,284 tonnes of portable waste batteries were also collected, achieving the EU's 45 per cent battery collection target.
Chief executive of WEEE Ireland, Leo Donovan, said the current system measures e-waste collection against the volume of new electrical goods placed onto the market over the previous three years, with Ireland falling short of Europe's 65 per cent collection target.
In 2025, Irish producers placed 25kg of household electrical equipment per person on the market.
“Ireland is recycling more electrical waste than ever before and consumers are making a real effort to do the right thing. But Europe’s current measurement system was designed for a very different market,” Donovan said.
“Current collection rate targets do not adequately reflect modern consumption patterns, long product lifespans, or emerging technologies such as solar PV systems and heat pumps.
“These products may not enter the recycling stream for decades, yet they are already included in today’s sales-based targets."
WEEE Ireland supports a more modern approach to measuring the effectiveness of national recycling systems, Donovan added.
He said that “quality recovery” is becoming just as important as collection volumes as Europe seeks to secure critical raw materials needed for renewable energy systems and future manufacturing technologies.
“Europe is moving towards a model where circular economy performance will matter just as much as collection volumes.
“The focus now has to move beyond simply collecting waste to ensuring valuable materials, including lithium, copper, cobalt and aluminium are recovered to strict standards and kept within the circular economy.”
“Ireland is well-positioned to respond to those changes due to sustained investment in our recycling infrastructure, compliance systems and public awareness campaigns over the past two decades.”
Consumers have been encouraged to recycle old and broken electricals and waste batteries free of charge through local authority civic amenity centres, participating retailers and WEEE Ireland collection events nationwide.
For more information, visit www.weeeireland.ie.
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