Zero waste Cobh initiative among eco projects to receive funding

A local group is receiving funding to make Great Island carbon free by 2040. Picture: Denis Minihane.

Zero waste fashion, carbon clubs, eco mattresses and the recycling of inhalers are among the green projects being encouraged via the distribution of circular economy funding on Monday.

The various initiatives are being backed through a round of grants worth €75,000 from the Community Foundation of Ireland and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The grants are aimed at encouraging communities to embrace means of cutting down on waste by giving used products a new life. The circular economy involves reusing and recycling existing products and materials for as long as possible in order to minimise waste.

“Taking climate action is often about being imaginative,” said Denise Charlton, chief executive of the Community Foundation.

“These grants show there is no shortage of ideas, creativity and energy in communities when it comes to meeting the greatest challenge of our times.”

“In a circular economy nothing is wasted and material resources are valued,” Sharon Finegan, director of the office of environmental sustainability with the EPA, said of the funding allocations.

She said that the projects receiving funding “will increase awareness of the circular economy at community level and show how new ways of doing things can have a real impact”.

The various projects cover the scope of the circular economy.

One receiving funding of €10,000 and being developed by ReCreate Ireland is called WasteToWear and is aimed at encouraging younger generations to reuse, repurpose and redesign existing clothing in order to cut down on fashion waste.

Growth in environmental projects

How Food Grows, developed in Waterford, is an online course aimed at increasing awareness about where the food Irish people consume comes from, and to encourage more people to grow their own.

An alliance of local organisations is determined to make the town of Cobh a Zero Waste Municipality by 2030 and for the surrounding Great Island in Cork Harbour to be Carbon Free by 2040. Funding is being provided to support local outreach and increase awareness of the switch to full local Circular Economy.

The innovatively titled No Plastic. Period is a campaign organised by environmental charity VOICE Ireland and aimed at raising awareness of reusable alternatives to disposable menstrual products, the source of large amounts of plastic waste. 

Inhaler recycling sponsored by the Irish Doctors for the Environment group, is aimed at promoting a national rollout of an inhaler recycling scheme. Common asthma inhalers are made up mostly from recyclable metal and plastic.

The €3,000 in funding received by the scheme will contribute towards the development of a national network of drop off points.

In Monaghan meanwhile, Ireland’s first toy library in Carrickmacross is receiving funding support in its efforts to encourage ‘borrow not buy’ for children aged up to six years, with the initiative estimating that 1,000 parents and children will benefit from the financial injection.

“Demonstration projects at local level have the potential to scale up to national level where successful and the EPA looks forward to working with Community Foundation Ireland to support these projects,” Ms Finegan said.