Clothing most reused item in 2024, CSO data reveals
Central Statistics Office
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Second-hand clothing was more popular with women than men, with 38 per cent of women making purchases in a second-hand shop or marketplace last year, compared with 25 per cent of men.
A quarter of households reported receiving clothing as a private gift or through a donation or clothes swap.
Second-hand small electronic items were less popular, with 16 per cent of households buying or receiving them as a gift during this period.
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The CSO report shows that most Irish households continue to recycle, with just 1 per cent saying they did not recycle any of their waste last year, which was in keeping with the findings of the previous household waste study in 2021.
Each person in Ireland produced an average of 342kg of household waste in 2022, according to
Environmental Protection Agency
data, an increase of 28kg (8.9 per cent) from 2018.
The EPA says the most effective way to reduce waste generation in households is by cutting consumption and reusing and repairing existing items.
Wheelie bin collection services remain the most common way of disposing of household waste, with about 80 per cent of respondents saying they used such a service for recyclable and nonrecyclable items last year. Recycling centres were used more frequently in rural than in urban areas.
In terms of food waste, 13 per cent of households composted it at home, a decrease of 3 per cent since 2021, with the majority putting it in the organic (brown) waste bin for collection.
Some 22 per cent said they put food waste in their general refuse bin, while 9 per cent reported feeding it to animals.
Tadhg O'Shaughnessy, a statistician in the CSO's Sustainability and Circular Economy Division, said 62 per cent of households 'did not report any irritating noise pollution'.
However, he said for households who did experience irritation, 'the main source of noise pollution was from road traffic', with the issue affecting 18 per cent of respondents.
People aged 17-34 were much more likely to have experienced noise pollution, with 30 per cent reporting irritating traffic noise as an issue.
Tests for radon, a radioactive gas that causes lung cancer, were carried out by 11 per cent of households last year, with rates of testing higher in the west than in Dublin.
Some 9 per cent of households tested were considered to be above the reference level for radon.
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