Lynn Boylan plan would see dumping of new products outlawed

Sinn Féin senator Lynn Boylan is bringing forward legislation to ban the dumping of any usable products, with fines for companies that do so. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

Ireland should move to introduce laws to ban the dumping of new products, as any EU regulation could be up to five years away, Sinn Féin senator Lynn Boylan has said.

Ms Boylan is bringing forward legislation to ban the dumping of any usable products, with fines for companies that do so. This would include items such as clothing, electronics, and furniture.

“I think any right-minded person would be shocked and horrified to know that items with finite resources like lithium batteries and electronic equipment like laptops, iPads, phones, Dyson hoovers, hair dryers, flat-screen TVs would all go straight to landfill because they are simply last year’s model or have spent too long on the shelf of a warehouse facility,” Ms Boylan told the Seanad.

Ms Boylan said that this is particularly the case for Amazon, describing the company as the “largest offender”.

“We know that their business model is designed that it becomes more costly to store the item for third-party sellers. So I have a choice to either ship back the item to wherever it has originated, or else to send it to landfill or incineration or recycling.”

CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB

The Sinn Féin spokeswoman on climate justice referenced research by shipping company DHL which showed there has been a 19% increase in returns from online shopping in the last two years for 1,000 online retailers.

Of those 1,000 retailers, 17% said that they were opting to dispose of the returns they receive rather than resell or recycle them.

Ms Boylan said that while the EU is looking at a directive to improve the circular economy in Europe, this could be pushed back for as much as five years. Initial EU proposals would also only cover textiles and clothing, despite ongoing negotiations to expand the remit.

She added that while the Government is not opposing the bill, she believes it hopes the bill would just “die a death” and that Ireland would need to accept an “inferior” EU proposal.

In response, junior minister for the circular economy Ossian Smyth said that there is a “moral imperative” for companies to engage in the circular economy, but that changes are needed to improve the bill.

He said that to make the proposals work, there would need to be a “supervisory regime” introduced alongside the bill.

“We need to have some way to see how much product is being destroyed by companies and some way of inspecting them and some way of being able to measure statistically what’s going on,” said Mr Smyth.