The Department of Environment has allocated €15 million in grants for nationwide local authority recycling programmes.
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Minister for the Environment, Mr Martin Cullen said the funding would be given to 55 local authority-recycling projects. "We compare poorly to our European neighbours when it comes to recycling," he said.
The Minister said the volume of plastics, glass, paper metals and other recoverable items being sent to landfill had to be reduced.
Some 530 new deposit sites where people can deposit recyclable materials will be added to the 1,300 existing sites under the scheme.
Eight new composting facilities will be built with 17 new civic amenity sites. The grants are being funded under the National Development Plan.
More than 260 applications for capital funding were received by the Minister, with an estimated cost of hundreds of millions of euro.
"It is clear from this level of demand that much more remains to be done," he said. Mr Cullen said he hopes to announce a further round of allocations to private waste companies.
The Government's 15 cent levy on plastic bags cut consumption of the environmentally damaging bags by over 90 per cent.