Ireland recycles 18.1m WEEE appliances

According to WEEE Ireland, the country had collected 1,327 tonnes in portable battery packs. 

The report, published this month, highlighted that an estimated that 22,852 tonnes of CO2 had been saved through the recycling of WEEE. 

According to the report, there is a 96% recovery rate across all categories for WEEE for use in manufacturing or final energy recovery. The report also highlighted that there is an 80% recycling rate. 

Leo Donovan, CEO, WEEE Ireland, said: “The name WEEE Ireland is synonymous with national solutions put in place to meet the growing e-waste and waste batteries environmental challenges. We have amplified the call-to-action message with a range of campaigns and promotions to encourage takeback and raise awareness around the e-waste challenge. This is an important requirement of our scheme approval. 

“This year we topped all previous awareness campaigns with the number of people who saw our recycling message. In addition to this our communications team have been instrumental in the development of a new national awareness campaign, along with the government platform My Waste.ie aimed at increasing takeback of small WEEE nationwide.” 

Vapes 

Last year, WEEE Ireland introduced a takeback scheme for vapes and e-cigarettes, in which it placed collection points across hospitality venues and vape stores. 

In the report, the body highlighted that the scheme collected nearly 17 tonnes of waste vape devices for recycling, which it has said equates to approximately 750,000 devices. 

Batteries 

Alongside the vape recycling scheme, WEEE Ireland also ran its ‘Farm Fence Battery Recycling’ campaign again in 2023, in which it encourages farmers to return batteries from their electric fencing to retail and local authority collection points. 

Pippa Hackett, minister of state at the department of agriculture, food and the marine, said: “I am delighted to support this campaign by WEEE Ireland to encourage farmers to recycle their old batteries for free.  

“I would encourage all farmers to have a quick look around their farmyard and collect up any used batteries and bring them to their co-op, or wherever they are buying batteries, the next time they are going there. This is a free, simple and effective way for farmers to help the environment and keep their yards tidy at the same time.” 

*Amended to say appliances rather than tonnes