Repak Oireachtas Evening

In March of this year, Repak invited members of the Oireachtas to an informal briefing session in the Royal College of Physicians, Dublin.

The purpose of the event was to highlight the success of Repak in its 10 years of being and to highlight the issues that still face the company and its members.

Repak CEO, Dr. Andrew Hetherington expressed his confidence that Ireland can indeed achieve its 2011 packaging recycling target of 60%, however with an added note of warning, he concluded that if we are to mirror the success of our European counterparts, support from all sectors would be necessary for Ireland to hit recycling rates of 95%.


“We need all of the players in the game working off the same gameplan”, he said. “That includes business, Government, local authorities, waste collectors, schools and householders

Repak & EPA Prevention Programme 2007

The first two in a series of seminars in the Repak ‘Prevent and Save’ programme were held recently in Dublin and Cork. The seminars drew an attendance of over 100 Repak members who heard presentations from a range of experts in the field, as well as a number of well presented case studies from existing members.

The Dublin seminar, held at Enterprise Ireland’s headquarters in Glasnevin, was opened by the former Environment Minister, Dick Roche, TD who highlighted the vital role that prevention has in the arena of packaging growth, recovery and recycling.

The prevention programme is being headlined and funded jointly by Repak and the EPA in association with the DoEHLG.

The programme measures will see:
· a series of awareness raising seminars
· a what is best practice packaging website
· a supply chain benchmarking study
· exemplar best practice case studies
· consumer research study on packaging preferences and purchase behaviour
· Packaging Design Awards aimed at promoting examples of best practice
· Development of a carbon footprint calculator for member companies
· Development of a interactive householder carbon footprint calculator

Additional backup is provided by Enterprise Ireland who have lent their considerable weight of expertise in packaging technology to the programme. Repak received very favourable feed back from the seminars and are currently looking to repeat the exercise.

The packaging recycling rate in Ireland stands at an all time high of 60%, while the volume of packaging on the market continues to grow in line with changing demographics and economic activity. The Packaging Waste Prevention Programme aims to utilise the best indigenous and international experience and practice to educate and promote improvements in packaging utilisation including product minimisation, material light weighting and replacement strategies.