Every man, woman and child in the State is now producing an estimated 600 kg of waste a year - an increase of more than 60 per cent since the Celtic Tiger boom started in 1995.
The Environmental Protection Agency also says that land is under pressure as a result of urban sprawl, housing construction and associated transport infrastructure as well as peat extraction, afforestation and habitat destruction.
According to the EPA, waste remains "one of the most difficult areas of modern environmental management", with nearly 88 per cent of the 2.3 million tonnes of household and commercial waste going to landfill while only 12 per cent is recycled.
"Ireland is rapidly reaching a crisis situation in relation to waste-management and it is clear that the present approach is not sustainable," it says.
Based on current municipal disposal rates, the EPA calculates that licensed landfill capacity will run out within five years. Some regions, such as the south- east, the mid-west and Dublin, will have no capacity left in less than four years.
"While the recycling rates have improved in recent years, they are a considerable distance away from the Government's target of 35 per cent," the agency says, adding that the 15 cent levy on plastic bags was "a step in the right direction".
On packaging waste - bottles, cans, paper and cardboard - it notes that this is increasing at 3 per cent per annum and warns that Ireland would have to make "considerable progress" if it is to meet an EU obligation to recycle 50 per cent by 2006.
In the manufacturing sector, recovery rates increased from 31 per cent in 1995 to 51 per cent in 1998, partly because of the obligation to reduce waste at source in the EPA's Integrated Pollution Control licensing regime.
The report suggests that there is scope to reform the fiscal system to apply fully the "polluter-pays" principle. Though the recent imposition of a landfill tax would promote a more sustainable approach, the EPA says Ireland has no significant biological waste-treatment capacity and no infrastructure for large-scale composting or thermal treatment.
In an implicit endorsement of the need for incineration, it says: "Waste-prevention and minimisation are essential, but there is also an urgent need for a modern integrated waste-management infrastructure to cater for the needs of a 21st century society".
On declining bird species, the EPA says: "Recent surveys of Irish birds have identified 18 species that have been in rapid decline over the last 25 years. A further 76 bird species have undergone less severe declines but are still under threat . . . an indication that increasing pressures are being placed on their habitats."
Although 45,000 farmers have joined the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme since it started in 1994, accounting for 2.4 million acres of land, large-scale intensive farming activities with potentially the greatest environmental impact "are significantly under-represented".
While the numbers involved in organic farming have risen from 238 registered producers in 1993 to 1,083 last year, the 72,000 acres now being farmed in this way represents only 0.7 per cent of agricultural land - less than a third of the EU average.
The EPA report describes Ireland's peatlands as "a unique and finite resource", noting that they once covered more than 17 per cent of land area, but now only about one-fifth of that original peatland remains relatively untouched.Peatlands provide important habitats for many species, as well as absorbing carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas.
On forestry, the EPA says the recent planting rate is among the highest in Europe, but 77 per cent of the forests are coniferous, with over 50 per cent being Sitka spruce; they have less amenity or habitat value than broadleaf species.