Originally, the levy of €127 per tonne was set to meet a recycling target of 50%. It was never envisaged that the levy would cover the recycling costs of all plastic placed on the market.

In 2005, this target was exceeded by 40% and IFFPG was obliged to suspend collections in some area. Clearly, this situation was unsatisfactory and resulted in IFFPG, in consultation with Department of Environment, local authorities and farming organisations working together to revise the Scheme.

Main Points of Revised Scheme:

• Once off backlog free collections provided by local authorities nationwide
• Levy remains the same, but recycling targets increased
• Weight based collection fees introduced for farmers to ensure that service available to all farmers
• Traceability system introduced, i.e. Labelling Tracking System