Minister hails Irish success in meeting recycling targets
Minister for the Environment Dick Roche has hailed a new EPA report showing that Ireland has met its recycling targets eight years ahead of schedule.
The National Waste Report shows that target of recycling 35% of all waste by 2013 was achieved in 2005.
Mr Roche said the figures showed Irish people had "risen to the challenge" and had outperformed all other European countries in the area of recycling.
However, he said this should not be cause for complacency and efforts would continue to improve recycling levels even further in the coming years.
The minister also expressed concern about the fact that almost one-quarter of all households are not using waste collection services, meaning more than 200,000 tonnes of rubbish is unaccounted for each year.
Mr Roche said he wanted to find out exactly what was happening to this waste.
