Local authorities must prioritise environmental protection to improve air and water quality and increase waste recycling

Local Authorities play a vital role in protecting our environment and carried out over 197,000 environmental inspections in 2022. Local authorities need to prioritise enforcement of the roll-out and use of 3-bin systems to improve segregation of household and commercial waste. More local authority farm inspections and follow-up enforcement is needed to reduce the impact […]

EPA launches a National Air Quality Forecast

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched a national air quality forecast available on airquality.ie. The forecast will provide maps showing the predicted daily air quality for up to three days -“Today”, “Tomorrow” and the “Day after Tomorrow”. The air quality forecast is an important resource for everyone, but especially people who may be sensitive to poor […]

New EPA Online Portal provides full and open access to environmental enforcement information

·       From today the EPA’s new LEAP Online portal enables easy access to environmental enforcement information providing full public access to our enforcement activities. ·       Through LEAP Online the public will be able to see information on site inspections, monitoring, incidents, non-compliances, complaint summaries and also compliance investigations into issues detected at EPA licensed sites. ·       LEAP Online […]

Uisce Éireann must use its new investment plan to end pollution of our rivers and coastal waters from waste water

Over half of Ireland’s waste water discharges are not meeting EU standards set to protect the environment. Uisce Éireann has committed to eliminating raw sewage discharges by 2025 from the majority of the 26 towns and villages with no treatment. Uisce Éireann still does not have clear plans to prevent pollution at some of the […]

“Urgent action needed to improve private drinking water quality”, says EPA

Private drinking water quality is not as good as public water quality The total number of small private supplies remains unknown as not all have registered with their local authority. Eighty four percent of registered small private supplies were monitored in 2022, compared with seventy five percent in 2021. The government review of the rural […]

EPA publishes national criteria for recycled aggregates

Construction waste is Ireland’s largest waste stream, and current recycling rates are too low. Implementation of new national end-of-waste criteria will reduce construction waste going to landfills, and increase recycling rates. Use of end-of-waste criteria for recycled aggregates will support green procurement in the built environment. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has today published National […]

Ireland’s ambition to move towards the health-based WHO air quality guidelines will be challenging, but will have a significantly positive impact on health

Ø  Air quality in Ireland is generally good, however, there are concerning localised issues. Ø  Ireland met all of its EU legal requirements in 2022, but it did not meet the more stringent health-based World Health Organisation (WHO) Air Quality guidelines. Ø  It is estimated that there are approximately 1,300 premature deaths annually in Ireland due to poor air […]

Urgent action needed to improve Ireland’s household and commercial waste segregation and recycling performance – EPA

Over two thirds of wastes in general waste bins could have been placed in the recycling or organic waste bins. Food waste in commercial general waste bins is 30 per cent and in household general bins is 17 per cent. Plastics in the general waste bins are also significant for households (17 per cent) and […]

Ireland generated 1.2 million tonnes of packaging waste in 2021 – EPA calls for measures to urgently tackle packaging waste

Ireland generated 1.2 million tonnes of packaging waste in 2021. Ireland is continuing to achieve high levels of recycling for glass (84 percent) and paper/cardboard (73 percent). Plastics present a serious challenge. Only 28 percent of plastic packaging waste was recycled in 2021, a long way off the 2025 EU target of 50 percent. The […]

Drinking Water Quality in Public Supplies report for 2022 – EPA

The quality of drinking water from public supplies remains very high, with over 99.7% of samples compliant with bacterial and chemical limits. 481,000 people are currently served by “at-risk” supplies on the EPA’s Remedial Action List (RAL), up from 374,000 people in 2021. Persistent THM (Trihalomethane) failures were detected at supplies serving 235,000 people, doubling the population […]

« Previous PageNext Page »