Food waste mountain 50% above EU target

IRELAND’S growing mountains of organic and food waste threaten to breach a key EU target, an environmental report has warned.

While Ireland is increasingly recycling household and urban waste, large amounts of organic waste — including food products — are still being dumped into landfills.

The amount of biodegradable waste being dumped by households and businesses grew to 1.48 million tonnes in 2007, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report.