A report from the Environmental Protection Agency also highlighted an overreliance on incinerators.
The amount of waste generated by homes and businesses rose by 6 per cent in 2019, while recycling rates fell to 37 per cent.
Eimear Forrestal from Small Changes, a reduced-waste shop in Inchicore in Dublin, says people should try to avoid creating rubbish in the first place:
"I look at my waste and kind of go well, would I burn this right now my own back garden or dig a hole and bury it in the back garden? And if no was the answer, then find something else to do it with or don't buy it. You know, because that's essentially what happens to us. I think there's a disconnect between what people buy in a shop and then when they put it into the bin it's gone at their mind. They don't think about the process that has to go through."
