Households urged to join 15,000 tonnes recycling bid

HOUSEHOLDS are being urged to recycle a record-breaking 15,000 tonnes of used packaging this month.

To reach the target, each family must environmentally dispose of the equivalent of 28 plastic bottles, five glass wine bottles, five beverage cartons, 6kg of cardboard, nine aluminium drinks cans and 20 food cans during October.

The 15,000 tonnes goal should beat last year’s Repak Recycling Week which helped boost overall household packaging recycling rates by 59%.

Repak chief Andrew Hetherington said Ireland has finally become more environmentally-conscious.

“In many areas around the country, with the introduction of pay-by-weight /pay-by-use, people not only have an environmental but also a financial incentive to recycle more.

“Last year, Repak helped Ireland achieve and exceed its EU 2005 packaging recycling target by 14%.”

Environment Minister Dick Roche praised householders for making serious gains in recycling.

“Projects such as Repak Recycling Week are important as they encourage people to further improve the level of waste that is recycled,” he said.

As part of Recycling Week — which starts today — the industry funded recycling body Repak will distribute activity packs to 3,491 national schools and a series of activities has been devised to promote recycling in schools and homes.

Meanwhile, a Repak survey released today found that people claimed to recycle about 41% of waste, while about 60% of over 25s use a recycling centre at least once a month.

The survey revealed that:

* 73% of people recycle used packaging.

* 47% of people recycle old clothes.

* 35% of people recycle electrical goods.

* Only one-in-10 people recycle nothing compared with three-in-10 in 2003.

Mr Hetherington said: “We are witnessing huge growth in recycling with people using kerbside and ‘bring’ collections as they are simple and convenient.

“The dual system of recycling centres and kerbsides has helped Ireland exceed our EU target by 14% last year. However, to continue to grow we are calling for more widespread introduction of pay-by-weight /pay-by-use systems.”