The Government has signalled its intention to encourage the development of community-scale anaerobic digestion (AD) plants as part of Ireland’s new Circular Economy Strategy for 2026–2028, launched this week.
The Whole of Government Circular Economy Strategy 2026–2028, outlines a plan to speed up Ireland’s transition from a traditional “take–make–waste” economic model to a more sustainable circular economy.
The strategy was launched by Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment Darragh O’Brien, alongside Minister of State with responsibility for the Circular Economy Alan Dillon.
A key focus of the strategy is supporting communities to reuse food waste locally through AD, while also helping the State meet targets under the National Biomethane Strategy.
Alternatives
The strategy states that it will place “particular focus on assisting communities without access to municipal brown bin collections to develop alternatives,” and on supporting communities seeking to link small-scale AD, composting and biorefinery facilities with local reuse, repair and sharing initiatives.
No detail
However, the strategy provides limited detail on what form this support will take.
At present, there are no community-owned food-waste AD plants producing biomethane gas in Ireland, with only commercial projects in operation or development.
Most projects in development require investments of tens of millions of euros. The added technical, regulatory and financial complexity of developing food waste AD facilities raises questions about how viable such projects would be for communities without significant external backing.
SHARING OPTIONS