Soft plastics like crisp bags and sweet wrappers can be put in household recycling bins from this week.
Bin companies will accept them once they're "clean, dry and loose".
It's part of efforts to stop sending large amounts overseas to be processed and the burning of plastic.
Soft plastics account for around 160 thousand tonnes of plastic waste in Ireland every year.
Mindy O'Brien from environmental group VOICE says there needs to be less plastic packaging in the first place with a focus put on prevention.
"We need to put pressure on retailers and politicians to reduce the amount of plastic they're putting on the market in the first place so we don't have to choose which bin to put it into."