SIPTU has stated that the proposed sale by the State of Bord Na Mona Recycling is untenable in light of a new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report which says Ireland will miss its mandatory EU recycling targets that apply from 2025 onwards.
SIPTU Transport, Energy, Aviation and Construction Divisional Organiser, Adrian Kane, said: “The reported decision of the Government to privatise Bord na Móna Recycling flies in the face of the findings in the EPA’s Circular Economy and Waste Statistics Highlight Report 2022.
“It is ludicrous to sell Bord na Mona Recycling at a time when the report showed that ‘Ireland’s progress towards a circular economy was stalling’.
It is not possible to increase recycling when almost one in four households in the State do not even have a domestic waste collection service, a statistic that the EPA neglects to report.
“Ireland is unique in allowing side-by-side competition between domestic waste collection services within local authority areas. SIPTU, which organises waste workers across the country, has been calling for a wholesale restructuring of the sector with a view to the re-municipalisation of domestic waste services.
We agree with the EPA that there must be greater ‘investment in new circular economy infrastructure’. It is clear, that selling the last remaining state infrastructure in this sector will undermine the goal of increasing levels of recycling.”
He added: “SIPTU Organisers and Bord na Mona Recycling Shop Stewards are scheduled to meet with several Fianna Fáil TDs representing counties in the Midlands on Thursday to ensure that the incoming Government is under no illusion about the level of opposition to the sale of Bord na Mona Recycling from the workforce and the negative impact it will have on our environmental targets.”