Raise a glass to recycling

EVEN a casual visit to a bottle bank quickly reveals a lot about a changed Ireland, and no scientific research is needed. The first observation is we’ve become very partial to wine, the other is we’ve taken to glass recycling with gusto.

Given that our consumption has increased six-fold in just over 20 years, we certainly need ways of disposing of all those bottles. According to the Irish Wine Association, 8.9 million cases were consumed here in 2012. At 12 bottles per case, that amounts to a staggering 106.8m bottles.! In 1990, we drank a temperate 1.7m cases, or just over 20m bottles.

We’re still not the biggest wine drinkers in Europe, trailing far behind countries like France and Denmark, but we are ranked one of the best in Europe for glass recycling, according to Rehab Glassco, Ireland’s largest glass recycling company.