Ireland among the worst in EU for recycling plastic

Around 70% of the plastic in Ireland is burned rather than recycled.

Ireland remains near the bottom of the EU table when it comes to recycling plastic in the bloc, yet is at the top for generating overall packaging waste, the latest available data show.

According to Eurostat, the data analysis wing of the European Commission, each person living in the EU generated 34.4kg of plastic packaging waste, out of which 14.1kg was recycled before the pandemic began.