People urged to recycle Christmas waste

People were urged to think green this Christmas with households expected to booze their way through millions of bottles of wine and beer.

Each household will generate around 60 kilos or a total of 82,000 tonnes of used packaging during the festive season.

Recycling scheme Repak is aiming to collect and recycle 40% of the used materials in a bid to avoid a New Year waste packaging mountain.

It is estimated 164 million drink containers - including both alcoholic and non-alcoholic cans and bottles - will be consumed.

Andrew Hetherington, chief executive of Repak, said: "As part of our campaign to encourage people to recycle, we are reminding people not to burn their packaging waste but to make sure it is recycled.

"Through our advertising campaign we are also asking people not to litter at recycling centres or bottle banks if they find the containers are already full. We are asking them to take their recyclables to another facility nearby or take it home and come back again another time."

Repak, which is a not-for-profit scheme established under a voluntary agreement between industry and the Environment Department, revealed that 44 million litres of alcohol will be consumed this Christmas, enough to fill 29 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

All the used glass wine and beer bottles would stretch from Ireland to Sri Lanka - more than 9,000 km - if laid out end to end.

The estimated 1.4 million tins of biscuits munched will produce 660 tonnes of steel and plastic waste while the 16 million Christmas crackers pulled will produce an estimated 270 tonnes of waste paper and card.

The increased consumption is expected to generate an additional 80,000 tonnes of waste or 170 million used packaging containers including 20 million wine bottles, 48 million aluminium beer cans, 35 million soft drinks cans, 13 million beer bottles and four million rolls of wrapping paper.

The Repak Green Christmas campaign is hoping to recycle 40% of the waste or the equivalent of 23 kilos per household or 32,000 tonnes in total. Last year, nearly 29,000 tonnes of used packaging was recycled, a 67% increase on the previous year.

The previous festive season the campaign saw the recovery of 9,873 tonnes of paper and cardboard, 3,520 tonnes of plastic, 462 tonnes of aluminium, 1,127 tonnes of steel and 13,872 tonnes of glass.

As part of the campaign running until January 7 next, more than 80 recycling centres will have extended opening hours and accept a wider range of materials than normal recycling banks.

Repak said the recycling of one plastic bottle saves enough energy to power a 60 watt bulb for six hours, while just 25 two litre plastic drink bottles make one adult size fleece jacket.

Meanwhile, Dublin City Council has confirmed €35m will be spent on street cleaning during 2007.

As part of new anti-litter initiatives, the additional €1.25m being spent on street cleaning will enable 30 new workers to be deployed in that area. Around 1,600 new leak-proof bins will be provided in the city, with a 33% higher capacity.

"We are increasing our concentration on tackling graffiti in the city and we have allocated an additional €500,000 in our 2007 Budget for this purpose," Matt Twomey, assistant city manager, said.