Farm plastic recycling costs are to rise by €10/t this year, Irish Farm Film Producers’ Group (IFFPG) general manager Liam Moloney has confirmed.

The details of the price rise came at a sitting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture on Tuesday evening.

“At the bring centre this year we’re going to charge the farmer €50/t. Last year and in 2019 it was €40/t. The average farmer brings in between 800kg and 900kg so they’ll pay €40-€45 this year,” Moloney said.

Also speaking at Tuesday’s committee meeting was James Fitzgerald of James Fitzgerald Agricultural Services.

The issue is that they’re deemed to have fulfilled their statutory remit when 70% of the Irish farm plastic material is collected

Fitzgerald called on IFFPG to share as much as 30% of the IFFPG levy with independent traders.

He said: “The IFFPG collect 100% of the levy, and they use it at their discretion within their company.

“The issue is that they’re deemed to have fulfilled their statutory remit when 70% of the Irish farm plastic material is collected.

“The rest of us have been collecting, shipping and exporting plastic over a number of years, and we’ve been able to do so without the use of the levy in a buoyant market.

“The situation has evolved, the amount of plastic being used has considerably increased.

“IFFPG by virtue of their remit have become competitors in the same market as private operators.”

Senator Paul Daly, speaking at the meeting, described the system as ‘extremely discriminatory’ against the individual traders.