Adults take twice blood level in alcohol over season

THE amount of alcohol drunk by each adult over the holiday season is equivalent to more than twice the volume of blood running through them.

The finding that the average adult will consume 16 litres of alcohol over Christmas and the New Year period is based on the number of empty cans and bottles expected to be disposed at Repak recycling centres.

Repak Green Christmas campaign figures show more than 130 million containers, which can be recycled, could be sent to landfill this Christmas. The figures mean each household will consume 12 litres of wine, 21 litres of beer, a litre of spirits and 46 litres of soft drinks.

Among the 95,000 tonnes of recyclable used packaging likely to be generated are:

54 million beer cans.

15 million beer bottles.

20 million wine bottles.

2.6 million spirits bottles.

4 million plastic soft drinks bottles.

28 million aluminium soft drink cans.

4 million cardboard chocolate boxes.

2.6 million cardboard toy boxes.

Almost 4 million sheets of wrapping paper.

All this is the equivalent of 74 kilos of used packaging for every household in the country.

The 44 million litres of alcohol we drink would fill 29 Olympic-sized swimming pools. If all the glass, wine and beer bottles were laid end to end, they would stretch from Ireland to Sri Lanka.

The 23,000 tonnes of cardboard and paper packaging alone is the weight of nearly 4,000 elephants and if all the wrapping paper was laid side by side, the resultant 8,000sq km sheet could cover half of Leinster.

The Repak Green Christmas campaign is to encourage householders to recycle the used packaging generated over Christmas.

Repak chief executive Andrew Hetherington said they could save 44 million from their Christmas waste bill by recycling packaging, as it is the first Christmas since pay-by-weight and pay-by-use has been introduced nationwide.

Repak has set up 90 Green Christmas Centres with extended opening hours. Locations are available from www.repak.ie.

Environment Minister Dick Roche said we are on our way to achieving our target of 35% recycling by 2013, “but we can always do more”.