Waste infrastructure in Ireland

EPA waste data release 23 March 2022. Latest reference year 2021.

This release presents the waste management infrastructure and waste capacity in Ireland for certain waste treatment activities.

Proactive planning for adequate waste treatment capacity in Ireland is essential to minimise negative environmental impacts. Ireland has some waste infrastructure deficits, such as the lack of a hazardous waste landfill. There is also limited capacity for some other waste/resource streams, in particular for recycling of paper & cardboard, plastics and some metals. These waste/resource streams are generally exported for recycling.

	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Number of landfills accepting municipal waste for disposal	29	31	28	28	21	18	11	9	6	7	5	5	4	3	3
Number of municipal waste incinerators	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	2

Open in Excel: Infrastructure Table 1. Number of operational municipal landfills and in (XLS 10KB)

Authorisation number	Facility name and location	Waste for disposal (maximum tonnes per annum)	Waste types for disposal (maximum tonnes per annum)¹	Waste types for recovery (maximum tonnes per annum)¹
W0146	Knockharley Landfill Co. Meath	175,000	100,000 household 45,000 commercial 30,000 industrial	25,000 construction & demolition 70,000 inert waste
W0165	Ballynagran Residual Landfill Co. Wicklow	175,000	62,500 household 67,500 commercial 45,000 industrial	28,000 construction & demolition
W0201	Drehid Waste Management Facility Co. Kildare	120,000	120,000 non-hazardous municipal, commercial and industrial wastes	No limit for inert waste where used in landfill engineering
	Total	470,000
Table Notes
1: See licence schedules for more detailed information on waste acceptance criteria. Available at http://www.epa.ie/

Open in Excel: Infrastructure Table 2. Landfills accepting municipal waste for disposal, 2020 (XLS 11KB)

Authorised waste to energy capacity in Ireland	Authorisation Number	Maximum waste acceptance limit per year (tonnes)
Incineration
Indaver Ireland Ltd.	W0167	235,000
Dublin Waste to Energy Ltd.	W0232	600,000
Co-incineration
Lagan Cement	P0487	95,000
Irish Cement Ltd.	P0030	120,000
Quinn Cement Ltd.	P0378	127,875
Total		1,177,875

Open in Excel: Infrastructure Table 3. Authorised waste to energy capacity, 2019 (XLS 10KB)

Maximum annual intake authorised for:	Tonnes per annum
Composting, anaerobic digestion and biostabilisation of organic fines¹	687,660
Composting²	Approx. 459,000
Anaerobic digestion²	Approx. 110,000
Biostabilisation of organic fines²	Approx. 143,700
Table Notes
1: Does not include facilities where only waste generated on-site is treated on-site such as at industrial installations.
2: Approximate as some facilities carry out more than one activity e.g. composting and biostabiliation.

Open in Excel: Infrastructure Table 4. Authorised capacity for composting, anaerobic digestion, (XLS 10KB)

Facility Name	Authorisation number	Composting activity	Anaerobic digestion activity	Biostabilisation of organic fines	Location	Maximum annual intake (tonnes per annum) under authorisation
Athchursáil Árann Teoranta	COMP-19	Yes	No	No	Co. Galway	60
Bord na Móna PLC Kilberry Compost Facility	W0198	Yes	No	No	Co. Kildare	96,000
Bord Na Móna PLC (Drehid Landfill)	W0201	Yes	No	Yes	Co. Kildare	25,000
Bruscar Bhearna Teoranta t/a Barna Waste	W0106	Yes	No	No	Co. Galway	40,000
Clare County Council Central Waste Management Facility	W0109	Yes	No	No	Co. Clare	2,000
Cleary Compost and Shredding Ltd	WFP-KE-10-0064-01	Yes	No	No	Co. Kildare	10,000
Cremin’s Farm Compost Ltd	WFP/L/2018/23A/R9	Yes	No	No	Co. Limerick	10,000
Crystalhill Inn	WFP-KK-16-0001-01	Yes	No	No	Co. Kilkenny	10,000
CTO Environmental Solutions Ltd	WFP-CK-09-0018-03	Yes	No	No	Co. Cork	10,000
Enrich Environmental Ltd	P1013	Yes	No	Yes	Co. Meath	50,000
Enviro Grind Ltd	WFP-DL-17-004-05	Yes	No	No	Co. Donegal	10,000
Garden Waste Recycling Ltd	WFP-KE-19-0095-01	Yes	No	No	Co. Kildare	4,000
Kings Tree Services Ltd t/a Greenking Composting Ltd	W0218	Yes	No	No	Co. Wicklow	40,000
Limerick City and County Council (Mungret Facility)	R02188	Yes	No	No	Co. Limerick	5,000
Louth County Council Dundalk Landfill	W0034	Yes	No	No	Co. Louth	4,000
M & T Plant Hire Ltd	WFP-WX-17-0129-01	Yes	No	No	Co. Wexford	10,000
Michael Dolan t/a Johnstown Recycling	WFP-WM-2015-001	Yes	No	No	Co. Westmeath	3,000
Molaisin Compost Ltd	W0245	Yes	No	No	Co. Waterford	20,000
Ormonde Organics	W0287	Yes	Yes	No	Co. Waterford	40,000
O'Toole Composting	W0284-01	Yes	No	No	Co. Carlow	40,000
Padraig Thornton Waste Disposal Limited t/a Thorntons Recycling	W0195	Yes	No	No	Co. Meath	40,000
Shane Thornton	WFP-MH-14-0007-02	Yes	No	No	Co. Meath	10,000
Sligo County Council – Young’s Quarry	R1474	Yes	No	No	Co. Sligo	Note 1
Starrus Eco Holdings Ltd	W0249	Yes	No	No	Co. Tipperary	45,000
Waddock Composting Facility Ltd	P1009	Yes	No	No	Co. Carlow	24,900
Ballyshannon Recycling Ltd	WFP-WX-15-0084-02	No	Yes	No	Co. Wexford	10,000
BioCore Environmental AD1 Ltd	WFP-RN-11-0002-02	No	Yes	No	Co. Roscommon	10,000
Bio-Energy and Organic Fertiliser Services (BEOFS)	WFP–KK–14–0010-02	No	Yes	No	Co. Kilkenny	10,000
H&L Environmental Services Ltd	WFP-T-12-0003-02	No	Yes	No	Co. Tipperary	30,000
McDonnell Farms Biogas Ltd t/a GreenGas AD Plant	WFP/L/2017/50/R4/T1	No	Yes	No	Co. Limerick	10,000
McGill Environmental Systems (Ireland) Ltd (Glenville Facility)	W0180	No	No	Yes	Co. Cork	20,800
Miltown Composting Systems Ltd	W0270-01	No	No	Yes	Co. Tipperary	24,500
OD Agri Ltd t/a OD Recycling	WFP-TS-10-0002-05	No	No	Yes	Co. Tipperary	23,400
Table Notes:
1: No annual acceptance limit in authorisation but amount of compost held should not exceed 1,000m³ at any one time.

Open in Excel: Infrastructure Table 5. Composting and anaerobic digestion capacity, by facility (XLS 13KB)