Government urged to recycle waste

THE Government has been urged to clean-up its own act by recycling more than one third of its waste.

Environment Minister Dick Roche said civil servants and semi-state bodies could divert thousands of tonnes of rubbish away from landfill sites under the project.

Mr Roche said the Action at Work scheme would ensure Ireland was on the way to hitting ambitious European Union targets of recycling 35% of the country’s waste.

“Action at Work will revolutionise how the public sector and large private organisations go about their daily business,” he said.

“The programme poses a new challenge to the business sector to provide competitive eco-friendly products and services as it is rolled out around the country.”

At present only 13.3% of combined household and commercial waste in Ireland is recycled.

Mr Roche has written to all government departments, hospitals, Health Service Executive, councils, prisons, Garda stations, universities and colleges, banks, transport providers and semi-state bodies to call for better waste management.

It is hoped the Action at Work, part of the Race Against Waste campaign, will reduce the 2.7 million tonnes of household and commercial waste - equivalent to 295,000 double-decker buses - generated almost every year.

The Minister said if every large public and private sector organisation in the country adopted reduce, re-use and recycle practices, substantial amounts of waste could be diverted away from landfill.

The Department of the Environment is to hold ten sector-specific seminars over the next couple of months with the Defence Forces, An Garda Siochana, the Prison Service, the North Western Health Board, Irish Rail and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Development Board.

The minister said the cross-sectoral programme to re-use, reduce and recycle would change attitudes over waste.

“People at home are already composting and recycling and this practical programme is about getting people to bring their good recycling habits from home into the workplace,” he said.

A special information pack is being sent to large organisations around the country on how to carry out a waste audit, how to involve staff, visitors and the public in reducing and recycling.

The campaign also details how to implement ‘green procurement’ practices and how to manage ten specific types of wastes, from canteen and green waste to laboratory and office waste.

Green Procurement encourages company bosses to consider environmental impacts when choosing equipment and supplies, such as energy-efficient computers, recycled paper and energy from renewable resources.