Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and officials in his department are producing on average two tonnes of waste paper a week, or the equivalent of up to 50 trees.
As a national environmental awareness campaign was launched to encourage public bodies and large companies to reduce and recycle the amount of waste they produce, it also emerged that only a few Government departments had any idea of the amount of waste they produce, and the proportion of it recycled.
The "Action at Work" programme, which is part of the Race Against Waste campaign aims to provide expert advice to large organisations, including Government departments, on increasing recycling rates and reducing waste levels.
In a series of replies to Green TD Ciarán Cuffe, it emerged that only one Government department, Foreign Affairs, was able to provide an exact estimate of the amount of waste it produced and the percentage of it recycled.
It produced over 220 tonnes of waste last year, of which 12.23 per cent was recycled.
The Department of the Environment, which has an extensive recycling programme in operation at its Custom House offices, was unable to provide any definitive figures, although yesterday it said it was recycling 70 tonnes of waste paper a year, and had reduced the amount of waste it was producing for landfill from 36 to 32 bins a week, or a reduction of 11 per cent, in the last two years.
There was little information on the recycling initiatives of other departments, although a majority had no recycling facilities for items like glass, cans or plastics.
The Department of the Taoiseach was one of the few exceptions, stating that it disposed of 104 tonnes of paper last year, all of which went for recycling. The Department of Finance produced the same figure, while the Department of Transport sent 45 tonnes for disposal.
It is estimated that it takes 25 trees to make one tonne of unrecycled paper.
Speaking at the launch of the Action at Work campaign, Minister for the Environment Dick Roche acknowledged that more could be done in the public sector, and said domestic users had been leading the way in terms of recycling behaviour.
"Rather than get defensive, it would be better if everybody, including Government departments, local authorities and public bodies, if they all would do their bit," he said.