Ireland has exceeded its EU recycling targets for the 21st year in a row.

Repak says Ireland is one of the top performers in Europe, finishing ahead of its goals by 13 per cent in 2018.

630,000 tonnes of recycling was collected here in 2018, a rise of 2.5% on the year before.

Ireland currently recycles 33% of all plastics, but if Ireland is to meet its EU targets for 2025, that figure needs to rise to 50%.

CEO of Repak Seamus Clancy says:

“This is steady progress, however a major effort across all parts of society will be needed to increase our plastic recycling to achieve highly challenging future EU targets. By 2030 we will have to double our plastic recycling and work has started towards that highly challenging goal.”