Govt urged to take action to save Irish Glass

The Repak group has called on the Government and politicians to establish a task force to explore ways of saving the Irish Glass recycling plant in Dublin from closure.

Yesterday, the plant’s owners, Ardagh plc, decided to shut down the factory, with the loss of 375 jobs.

Andrew Hetherington, the chief executive of Repak, said the closure is a disaster for glass recycling in Ireland and will severely hamper Ireland’s ability to comply with EU recycling commitments.

In a statement released today, Repak said: "The closure of Irish Glass will result in Irish industry paying additional costs for the shipment of glass to the UK market for recycling.

"The only other option is to use the glass in the laying of new roads, which incurs a higher cost of reprocessing and does not meet recycling targets."