Repak's member firms spent 23.7m on recycling packaging in 2006 and it estimates that its annual bill will rise to 45m by 2011. Hetherington said that with such a steep rise in recycling costs, Repak's members are likely to become increasingly unhappy about subsidising recycling for non-compliant firms.

Repak member firms pay for the recycling of all packaging collected by local authorities and private contractors. However, its members only account for 61% of all packaging put on the market. Businesses with a turnover in excess of 1m which generate in excess of 25 tonnes of packaging per annum are obliged to pay for the recycling of packaging.

Those who opt not to join Repak are obliged to collect and recycle at least 50% of the packaging they import or pack in each quarter. Of the 39% of packaging not generated by Repak members, some is accounted for by firms who are small enough not to fall under the scope of regulations, but the remainder is accounted for by "self-compliant" and non-compliant businesses. "We estimate that between self compliers, free riders and non-obligated companies, there could be an extra 18m outside the scheme that could be used to help fund future packaging recycling targets, " Hetherington said.

He said that while local authorities are charged with monitoring self-compliant firms, more funding is required to ensure compliance. "We don't blame the local authorities themselves, they simply don't have the financial reserves to do it, " he said.

"Whilst Repak can account for the investment and tonnes we have recycled on behalf of our members, nobody in the department of the environment, the EPA or the local authorities can tell us what the self compliers collective contributed to Ireland's packaging recycling efforts in 2005 or 2006, " he added.

Repak said 603,000 tonnes of cardboard, glass, cans and other packaging was recycled last year and 64% of all used packaging is now being diverted from landfill to recycling. The domestic sector increased by over 24%, showing that more households are separating their waste.