Repak takes over the streets of Dublin

One Material per Day Keeps the Bin Man away

Repak Recycling Week 2007 is luanched

-Repak Recycling Week targets ‘one material per day’ for householders
-Repak Recycling Week launches ‘Bling My Bring Bank campaign
-Recycling goes cyber with Repak bebo page, Youtube videos, blogs and podcasts
-Recycling Week Activity Packs sent to all 3,000 national schools
-Free WEEE open day on Saturday with additional centres around the country

The landscape of Dublin City will be dramatically transformed this October during Repak Recycling Week. Getting the week off to a creative start is the innovative Repak ‘Bling my Bring Bank’ campaign. Thanks to the creative control of the students of Killester College of Further Education, five glammed up and decked out Bring banks will be on display on the streets of Dublin City, in locations such as; Grafton St, O’ Connell St, Henry St, Temple Bar, all in a bid to bring recycling right to the fore front consumers and shoppers minds. Repak Recycling Week takes place from the 1st to the 7th of October and the bring banks will on display right throughout the week.

Also each day of the week will target a different recyclable material, Monday is Aluminium, Tuesday is Glass, Wednesday is Plastic, Thursday is paper and cardboard and Friday is WEEE.

During the week recycling will be taken into cyberspace as Repak launch its very own Bebo profile page. The page will have hints and tips on recycling, before and after photos and videos of the Bling my bring bank project. You can also log on to the Repak Website for drawing competitions, the chance for you to design your own Bring Bank and recycling themed computer games.

Repak will also be posting videos on Youtube, where you will see the making of one of the fabulous 'Bling Banks'

Our new TV advert will be aired from September 25th and is based on the Bob Dylan sony 'Subterranean Homesick Blues. You can view it here

Repak is also encouraging recycling through activities with schools, libraries and take aways all around the country. Repak is targeting 3,491 national schools to get on board with their tailored recycling week activity packs. The packs contain a series of activities to be carried out during the week and can be downloaded directly at Repak Schools web page.

Posters have been distributed to over 100 libraries around the country. And in a joint campaign with the European Aluminium Association, Repak are engaging with take away restaurants around the country to promote the recycling of aluminium food trays. Ireland has been very successful with the recycling of Aluminium cans in recent years however our overall recycling rate for aluminium is still only at 50% and the reason for this lower rate is mainly due to households not recycling these aluminium food trays. Repak is calling on all take aways to promote the recycling of food trays and have provided poster boards for many take aways to heighten consumer awareness.

Countdown for Repak Recycling Week 2007

Get set for RRW 2007 with our Recycling hints & Tips

Organise Household Bins.
Put three bins in the kitchen: one for recyclables; one for compostable vegetable waste; one for general waste. Organise a dedicated storage space in your backgarden or kitchen. Most hardware stores like Woodies or B&Q sell a range of special recycling bins and, if you have space, it’s worth investing and installing these into this dedicated area.

Composting.
Put a small compost bin beside your general waste bin or if you’ve space build a compost pile in your garden for kitchen vegetable waste and garden waste. As well as your brown and green food waste, wormeries can break down cooked meats that other conventional garden composters cannot deal with. After a few months the compost should become dark and crumbly and you can then start using it as top-soil or fertilizer to make your garden greener than ever.

Packaging Thrift.
Check for products with less packaging and use re-usable plates, cups and bags. Buy vegetables loose. Put leftover turkey and ham into reusable lunch boxes or containers with lids instead of using non-recyclable aluminium foil or plastic film. A lot of companies have made great strides in reducing the amount of packaging they use in product. For example, did you know the steel in baked bean cans now weigh today only 53% of what it did on the 1970’s dinner table (210g versus 113g for the same amount of beans).

Find your nearest Recycling Centre or Bring Bank.
You may be surprised at the wide variety of materials they can accept and most have extended opening hours over Christmas. Visit http://www.repak.ie/ or check yourlocal paper or for further details.

Be Clean.
Wash ‘n’ squash Tetra Pak containers. Rinse out bottle and cans, remove lids and squash plastic containers to save space. Remember don’t litter at bring banks. Take home any boxes or containers you used to bring materials to your local bring bank in.

Morning After Parties.
Gather up all glass bottles and aluminium cans in separate bags or bins. Remember plastic bottles (PET and HDPE bottles) can also be recycled at most Recycling Centres – look for 3 chasing arrows with either a number 1 or number 2 inside – this means it can be recycled in Ireland.

Recycle used batteries.
Collect up all the used batteries. Consider purchasing a battery re-charger and rechargeable batteries for battery operated toys and gadgets. Look up http://www.repak.ie/ to find your nearest recycling centre that accept batteries.

Use Re-usable Bags.

Make sure to use reusable bags when visiting your Recycling Centre or Bring Bank, especially if you’re wash ‘n’ squash your used packaging container. Often people use cardboard boxes, which can get soggy and unusable. Without realising, unfortunately, some people leave these beside Bring Bank and at Recycling Centres – this is litering and makes everyone’s job harder.

Packaging Recycling – an example of a few items to help us reach our RRW recycling target of 16,600 tonnes

Glass From the Kitchen
Baby Food Jars
Wine Bottles
Jam Jars
Sauce jars (Glass)

Cardboard
Cereal boxes
Tissue Boxes
Kitchen paper cores
Milk cartons
Juice Cartons
Multipack sleeves
Ready meals cardboard sleeves
Washing up powder boxes

Plastic
Plastic drink bottles
Washing up liquid bottles
Fabric softener bottles
Sauce bottles
Water bottles
Plastic Milk Bottles
Note: Please ensure all food containers are fully rinsed
Thus reducing attraction of flies

From the Livingroom
Newspapers
Magazines
Tissue boxes
Beer bottles or Cans

From the Bathroom
Shampoo/Conditioner bottles
Talc bottle
Shower gel bottles
Toilet roll cores
Tissue box
Toiletry outer sleeves and boxes, eg. Razors and soap
Hand soap bottles
Note: Please ensure all toiletry containers are fully rinsed
Ensuring limited product waste and maximum recyclability

Bedroom
Books
Magazines
Tissue box
Wall posters
Perfume boxes/packaging
Clothes packaging, socks, underwear, etc.
Clothes shopping bags (paper based)

From the Utility Room
Washing detergent boxes
Fabric conditioner bottles
Pet food cans
Note: Please ensure all utility containers are fully rinsedEnsuring limited product waste and maximum recyclability

Tidy Towns Results 2007

Aughrim, Co.Wicklow was awarded the title of Ireland’s Tidiest Town 2007. Aughrim came close last year when they won the Tidiest Small Town category and were just one point behind the overall winner, Westport.
The County Wicklow town was chosen from over 800 other competitors in this year’s National Tidy Towns Competition. Other winners included Birdhill, Co. Tipperary - Ireland’s Tidiest Village for the second time in a row, Killarney, Co. Kerry which received the Ireland’s Tidiest Large Town award and Letterkenny Co. Donegal was named Ireland's Tidiest Large Urban Centre. Aughrim also received the award of Ireland’s Tidiest Small Town.
The winner of the Tidy Towns Schools Award, which was launched last year, was St. Mary’s National School, Enfield, Co. Meath.
On hand to present the prizes in St. Patrick’s Hall in Dublin Castle was Mr. John Gormley, T.D., Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Mr. Donal Horgan, Managing Director of SuperValu, the competition’s national sponsor. Representatives of hundreds of Tidy Towns Committees from around Ireland travelled to Dublin to see Minister Gormley present the overall prize - a perpetual trophy and a cheque for €15,000 - to the Aughrim Tidy Towns Committee. Click here for more on this years Tidy Towns Results.

As the national Tidy Towns competition moves towards it’s 50th anniversary in 2008, Repak is delighted to continue its positive sponsorship arrangement with the DoEHLG and Ireland’s premier local community initiative, dedicated to ‘caring for the environment’.

In addition to the sponsorship of the 7 Regional Awards, Repak has again committed to the sponsorship of the new award for the ‘best presented and maintained bring bank site in each region’. This attracts a prize of €1,000 for the winner in each region and takes account both of presentation and utilisation by the local community in its evaluation. Certainly this award has complimented the existing Repak grant scheme which offers assistance to any local authority which is anxious to establish new bring bank sites in its area.
Repak wish to congratulate each award winner whose achievements were also announced at yesterday's official ceremony in Dublin.

For more log on to The Repak Website

Best Presented Bring Bank

Dublin: Skerries, Co Dublin
Midlands East: Cullyfad, Co Longford
South East: Emly, Co Tipperary
Northwest: Keash, Co Sligo
South East: Piltown, Co Kilkenny
South West: Portmagee, Co Kerry
West: Partry, Co Mayo
Overall Winner for Best Presented Bring Bank: Partry, Co. Mayo

Results for the Regional Awards:

Dublin: Skerries, Co. Dublin
Midlands East: Aughrim, Co. Wicklow
Mid West: Birdhill, Co Tipperary
Northwest: Letterkenny, Co Donegal
South East: Lismore, Co Waterford
South West: Killarney, Co Kerry
West: Westport Co Mayo