EPA waste data release 31 January 2023. Latest reference year 2021 (data subject to Eurostat validation)
A waste is hazardous when it can harm human health or the environment because it is explosive, oxidising, flammable, irritant, toxic, carcinogenic, corrosive, infectious, mutagenic, sensitising, or eco-toxic.
Examples of hazardous waste types are pictured in Figure 1, and the labels that identify the type of hazard they present are pictured in Figure 2.
Hazardous waste is controlled by strict regulations to protect against the threat to humans and the environment.
The UN Basel Convention came into force in 1992 and its objective is to control transboundary movements of hazardous waste and to protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects resulting from the generation, management, transnational movements and disposal of hazardous and other wastes. EU and Irish Regulations give effect to the Convention in Ireland and strengthen enforcement provisions in relation to waste movements within, into and out of the European Union.
Industrial facilities remain the largest source of hazardous waste in Ireland followed by the construction and demolition sector and then municipal sources, which remain small in comparison.
The Industrial sector - includes mining, pharmachem and waste recovery facilities etc., and was the largest source of hazardous waste in 2021. Types of waste generated include by-products of waste treatment, industrial solvents, sludges, oils, waste electrical & electronic equipment (WEEE), batteries and infectious waste from health care.
Construction and demolition - The quantity of hazardous waste generated by construction and demolition depends on activity to redevelop of brownfield sites and on dredging works, which decreased in 2021. Construction and demolition waste also includes smaller amounts of asbestos, asphalt, and contaminated wood, concrete, bricks, metals, and tiles.
The municipal sector - is comprised of small businesses and farms, schools, colleges and households. It produces approximately 3 per cent of Ireland’s hazardous waste. Examples of waste types include batteries, certain waste electrical and electronic equipment, solvent-based paints, varnishes and waste oils.
Table 1 below shows the types of hazardous waste generated in Ireland according to List of Waste Chapter.
Table 1 Hazardous Waste Generated in Ireland in 2021
| Waste Type | LoW Chapter | Tonnes |
| Construction and demolition wastes (incl contaminated soil) | 17 | 106664 |
| Organic chemical processes | 7 | 82075 |
| Wastes from waste management facilities, incl water treatment plants | 19 | 77487 |
| Wastes not otherwise specified in the list (incl WEEE) | 16 | 45688 |
| Oil wastes and wastes of liquid fuels (except edible oils) | 13 | 43143 |
| Chemical surface treatment and coating of metals and other materials; nonferrous hydro-metallurgy | 11 | 15817 |
| Human or animal health care | 18 | 15001 |
| Exploration, mining, quarrying, physical and chemical treatment of minerals | 1 | 14960 |
| Municipal wastes | 20 | 14730 |
| Organic solvents, refrigerants and propellants | 14 | 13026 |
| Packaging; absorbents, wiping cloths, filter materials and protective clothing | 15 | 12072 |
| Inorganic chemical processes | 6 | 9772 |
| Thermal Industrial Processes (Metal and cement Industries) | 10 | 6551 |
| Coatings (paints, varnishes and vitreous enamels), adhesives, sealants and printing inks | 8 | 4889 |
| Shaping and physical and mechanical surface treatment of metals and plastics | 12 | 2986 |
| Petroleum refining, natural gas purification and pyrolytic treatment of coal | 5 | 1889 |
| Wood processing and the production of panels and furniture, pulp, paper and cardboard | 3 | 125 |
| Photographic industry | 9 | 63 |
Hazardous waste must be treated to reduce its potential to pollute the environment or to threaten human health. Ireland’s hazardous waste is treated either on-site at the industrial facility where the waste was generated (under conditions of EPA licence), offsite at hazardous waste treatment facilities in Ireland, or at facilities in other countries.
EPA licensed industrial facilities fully treated 95,130 tonnes of hazardous waste at nine locations in 2021. This is a decrease of almost 3,000 tonnes on the 98,061 tonnes treated in 2020. Figure 4 shows the range of disposal and recovery activities used. Over 26,000 tonnes of this waste went for disposal and over 69,000 tonnes was recovered.
The waste generated at EPA licensed facilities does not include solvents that underwent R2 activities (i.e. solvent reclamation and regeneration) and re-entered industrial activities on-site. This is considered a waste prevention activity because it means that solvents that undergo this process are re-used and therefore do not become waste.
Hazardous waste treatment in Ireland
Irish hazardous waste treatment facilities treated 148,575 tonnes of hazardous waste to non-hazardous status in 2021, a decrease of four per cent on the previous year. Waste types treated included used motor oil, healthcare wastes, sludges, filter cakes, absorbents, laboratory and chemical waste, contaminated soils and household hazardous waste from civic amenity sites. This waste is treated until it is non-hazardous; the non-hazardous wastes that result are then further treated either in Ireland or abroad.
Treatment of waste oils
Article 37 of the revised Waste Framework Directive introduced new mandatory reporting on oils and waste oils for reference year 2020, to be reported in June 2022 for the first time.
The categories of waste oils that come within the scope of the new reporting include any mineral or synthetic lubrication or industrial oils[1] which have become unfit for the use for which they were originally intended. Examples include used combustion engine oils and gearbox oils, lubricating oils, oils for turbines and hydraulic oils. In 2020, approximately 31,000 tonnes (t) of these types of oils, namely mineral and synthetic lubrication and industrial oils were placed on the market in Ireland. The data show that almost 22,000 t of waste oil was collected in 2020. Of this, over 18,000 t was sent for oil re-refining (R9) in Ireland resulting in almost 17,000 t of fuel oil that went for energy recovery (R1), while over 1,000 t of the waste oils collected was exported for treatment. Data for 2021 will be calculated by June 2022.
Exports for treatment
2021 is the first year in which a higher percentage of hazardous waste was treated in Ireland than was exported for treatment. The majority (52 per cent) of Ireland’s hazardous waste was treated in Ireland either on site of generation or at hazardous waste facilities. However, Ireland does not have the facilities required to treat the full range of hazardous wastes it produces and therefore a further 48 per cent was exported abroad for treatment in 2021.
Figure 5 below shows the countries that accepted this waste. EU member states and Great Britain and Northern Ireland accepted 99 per cent of our hazardous waste exports in 2021. The spike in waste sent to the Netherlands in 2018 and 2019 has continued to reduce in 2020 and 2021 due to the decrease in IBA from municipal waste incinerators.
The generation of contaminated soils fell by almost 46,000 tonnes in 2021 and for the first time almost all treatment of contaminated soils (99 per cent) took place in Ireland, see Figure 6. Exports of contaminated soil have decreased to less than 1% of soils generated.
As part of annual reporting under the Basel Convention on the control of transboundary movements and the disposal of hazardous waste, the EPA submits hazardous waste statistics for Ireland to the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications for transmission to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. The data are required to be submitted by 31st December of the reference year +1 (i.e. 2020 data were collected and processed in 2021 and submitted to Eurostat by 31st December 2021). Following validation by Eurostat, official statistics for Ireland and all Member States are published on the Eurostat website as part of the following dataset:
[1] Edible and food oils are not included
