RRW 2007 Days 6-7 - WEEE

WEEE Ireland


WEEE Ireland, the national compliance scheme for electrical recycling, is a not for profit organisation, founded by producers of electrical and electronic appliances in order to comply with the legal obligations imposed by the WEEE Directive 2002/96/EC. WEEE Ireland organises the treatment and recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) from authorised collection points in Ireland, on behalf of its members.

WEEE Ireland works with permitted waste management companies and licensed treatment facilities to ensure WEEE is managed in an environmentally sound way and over 75% of the waste electrical and electronic equipment collected is initially processed here in Ireland. On behalf of its industry members WEEE Ireland has helped ensure over 7kg of household WEEE per person in Ireland was collected for recycling in 2006 – well ahead of the EU target for Ireland of 4kg per head of population by 2008. Ireland is well on track to collect 9kg of WEEE per head of population by the end of 2007.


For the finale of Repak Recycling Week 2007, we have teamed up with WEEE Ireland who are holding public service collection days at a number of venues around Ireland. These venues are in Dublin, Carlow and Westmeath.

For details on where you can bring your WEEE goods you can click here for more details.

RRW 2007 Day 5 - Repak Recycling Awards

Repak recycling awards promote and encourage excellence in packaging prevention and recycling

Re-useable packaging, compostable, flexible food packaging, zero waste to landfill, fixed packaging reduction targets and geo thermal heating systems are just some of the initiatives that have been commended in this year’s 6th Annual Repak Awards. This year was the first year that Repak awarded an Excellence award which was won by Tesco through “The Tesco Strategy” where they aim to be the first Irish retailer to reach 100% recycling of packaging and store waste by 2010 and to reduce strategy to reduce their own label packaging by 25% by 2010.

Other winners included Alcan Packaging Dublin Ltd for the Repak Best Practice Award and H.J. Heinz Co. who received the accolade for the Best Prevention Initiative Award. The awards took place in the Four Seasons Hotel in Dublin on Thursday night, the 4th October and were presented by Nationwide presenter Mary Kennedy.

Tesco Ireland were awarded Repak's newest honour, The Repak Excellence Award by virtue of their strong leadership in the protection of the environment through its strategy to minimise its carbon footprint and address crucial environmental concerns through recycling, packaging reduction and sustainable energy use. The Tesco environmental strategy, launched in 2007, sets a target of being the first Irish retailer to reach 100% recycling of packaging and store waste by 2010. The move will see more than 24,000 tonnes of waste recycled each year. The strategy also seeks to increase the recycability of their packaging which includes ideas like compostable packaging that would be available on a number of organic fresh products. Secondary cardboard and plastic packaging will be replaced by re-usable green crates. Tesco already have 250,000 re usable plastic crates in circulation each week preventing nearly 20 million cardboard boxes per annum. Packaging on own label brand products will be reduced by 25% by the target date of 2010. This initiative sets a benchmark for other retail chains and outlets and sends valuable messages to its consumers.

H.J. Heinz was presented with Best Prevention Initiative Award thanks to the launch of three Packaging Prevention Initiatives. Weights of plastic trays were reduced, corrugate cases were replaced with shrink-wrap and plastic drums were replaced with returnable containers. These initiatives resulted in savings of 67 tonnes of plastic and 42 tonnes of cardboard. By reducing this much waste the company is not only helping the environment but also making massive cost reductions.

Alcan Packaging Dublin, specialists in the printing of food flexible packaging took the Repak Best Practice Award. Alcan, through a continuous and measured process have examined all aspects of their production to ensure that no more packaging than necessary is used and that all packaging that can be recovered is segregated and sent for recycling. However, it is the development of a compostable flexible plastic food packaging for the breakfast cereal market that marked Alcan Packaging Dublin as leaders in best practice in packaging waste management.

Louth County Council was honoured as Repak Local Authority of the Year and Cork County Council was awarded Local initiative of the year for their Bandon Civic Amenity Site. O’ Reilly’s Centra Foodmarket, Bunclody, Co. Wexford managed to recycle 77% of its waste in 2006 reducing its waste management bill by 42% which made them worthy winners of the Best practice award in the independent retail sector.

The best practice accolade in the hospitality sector was presented to Fitzgerald’s Woodland House Hotel in Adare, Co. Limerick while Lakeland Dairies won Repak Member of the Year by reducing its landfill from 717 tonnes to 28 tonnes, a massive 97% reduction.

The small recovery operator of the year award went to Clean Ireland refuse and Recycling in County Clare while the large recovery operator of the year honour was handed to Panda Waste Services who are better know for their recent entry into the domestic Dublin waste market. Repak continued to acknowledge recycling among the youth by naming Aglish NS in Cappoquin, Co. Waterford Recycling School of the year. St. Catherine’s College Armagh won young recyclers of the year (junior section) for their project: “Green Christmas and Recycle Light.” The senior young recyclers of the year section was one by Scoil Mhuire, Athy, Co. Kildare for their project highlighting waste management entitled: “Help stop excess waste and make people aware of recycling facilities in our area.”

The 2007 results were:

1. Repak Member of the year Award - Sponsored by Arthur Cox
Winner: Lakeland Dairies

2. Repak Best Packaging Waste Prevention Initiative - Sponsored by the EPA
Winner: H.J. Heinz Co.

3. Repak Best Practice Award Large Company - Sponsored by the EPA

Winner: Alcan Packaging Dublin Ltd

4. Repak Best Practice Award Independent Retail Sector
Winner: O’Reillys Centra Foodmarket, Bunclody, Co. Wexford

5. Repak Best Practice Award Hospitality -Sponsored by REHAB
Winner: Fitzgerald’s Woodlands House Hotel – Adare, Co. Limerick

6. Repak Local Authority of the Year -Sponsored by REHAB

Winner: Louth County Council

7. Repak Local Authority Initiative of the Year -Sponsored by RPS
Winner: Cork County – Bandon Civic Amenity site.

8. Repak Recovery Operator of the Year Large Company - Sponsored by Bank of Ireland
Winner: Panda Waste Services, Dublin

9. Repak Recovery Operator of the Year Small/Medium Company - Sponsored by Tetra Pak
Winner: Clean Ireland Refuse and Recycling, Kilrush, Co. Clare

10. Repak, in Association with An Taisce, Recycling School of the Year
Winner: Aglish NS, Cappoquin, Co. Waterford

11. Repak Excellence Award
Winner: Tesco Ireland


12. Repak, in association with Eco Unesco, Young Recyclers of the year- junior
Winner: St. Catherine’s College, Armagh

13. Repak, in association with Eco Unesco, Young Recyclers of the year- Senior
Winner: Scoil Mhuire, Athy, Co. Kildare.

RRW 2007 Day 4 - Paper & Cardboard

In 2006 Repak members funded the recovery and recycling of 276,507 tonnes of cardboard and paper, which is up 12% over the same period in 2005, reflecting 83% of all paper and board packaging forecast to be on the market and accounting for 46% of the total weight of materials funded by the Repak Payment Scheme for Recycling.

These results show that Irish recyclers are winning the battle in the recycling of paper and cardboard, however there is still much to do if Ireland are to be confident of hitting their 2011 recycling target of 60%.

Repak members are also playing their part in reducing the quantities of paper and cardboard that they are placing on the Irish market. Below are some best example case studies of how Repak and its members are driving packaging prevention and minisation.

1. Diageo Baileys

Diageo Baileys prevents almost 53 tonnes of cardboard (over 900 trees) and 378 tonnes of glass (1.2 million glass bottles) every year thanks to the innovative industrial design of its new bottle introduced in 2004.

2. eircom

With broadband sales increasing significantly, eircom investigated ways to reduce the packaging of its broadband product without reducing its effectiveness but all to meet the increasing demands for the product. It prevent a staggering 15 tonnes of cardboard reaching the market (over 250 trees) by reducing the amount of cardboard required by 15%. It used one material instead of two and also reduced the amount of ink used.

3. Tetra Pak

Tetra Pak developed a new stronger but lighter inner plastic coating for its beverage cartons resulting in the weight of all its product reducing by 3% and also saving 4% on the Gross Energy Requirement of producing it.

4. Britvic Ireland (formerly C&C )

a) By redesigning the way it transports 9 x 2 Litre packs of 7Up, Britvic removed cardboard required by 100% and the amount of plastic shrink wrap required by almost 31%. This means, every year, 290 tonnes (or almost 5,000 trees) of cardboard is prevented from reaching the market and 68 tonnes of shrink wrap.
b) By changing the Ritz PVC sleeve to a PET sleeve, C&C introduced a more recyclable product (PET) and reduced the polymer usage by 6.4%.

5. Musgrave Ireland

In their chilled food market, it was discovered that by substituting their cardboard sleeves with labels, they would save 17g of packaging per unit. Their total ready meal sales alone amount to 1,000,000 units, translating into a wasted saving of 15 tonnes per annum and €57,500 per annum.

RRW 2007 Day 3 - Plastic

Plastic Recycling Rates

There is approximately 220,000 tonnes of plastic packaging making up 25% of all packaging. Plastic bottles only account for 20% of total plastic packaging. However it is very visible and very valuable

Plastic bottles recycling rates increase 5 fold over last five years
Now increasingly valuable raw material
1 tonnes of plastic bottles recycled saves c30 barrels of crude oil
Plastic bottles recycling rates at 34% up from under under 3% in 2002
Good growth up from 1100 tonnes in 2002 to nearly 15,000 in 2007 – increased 15 fold
Plastic bottles are ideally collected through kerbside green bin/bag systems – 64% recovered through kerbsides
Plastic bottles collection infrastructure increasing –nearly a million kerbside now collect plastic bottles
xxx Dublin green bins now taking plastic bottles. – the last kerbside to accept plastic bottles
Plastic Bottles are not just fizzy drink bottles – also are Milk bottles, Shampoo and toiletries bottles, detergents bottles, etc
Plans for two plastic bottle washing and chipping plants are in the pipe line for plastic bottles.


Plastic not a bad material a lot of on Island opportunities in plastic recycling in Ireland.
More Plastic Bottles are being recycled in Ireland than ever

Repak Plastic Bottle Recovery rates

Repak have grown plastic bottle recycling up from 1,096 tonnes in 2002 to over 15,000 tonnes by year end in 2007 or nearly 40% of all plastic bottles. These are not just beverage bottles but all plastic bottles.

Plastic Beverage bottles are less than 10% of all plastic packaging and represent only circa 15-20,000 tonnes which is less than 2.2% of all packaging waste.

People are very good at recycling their Fizzy drink plastic bottles and milk bottles, however there are other plastic bottles like Shampoo/Detergent bottles etc


Commentary “Plastic bottle recycling rates are low relative to other material types (like glass and cardboard at over 70%) but plastic bottles recycling rates are growing rapidly up 15 fold in 5 years. Plastic is a relatively new packaging material type and recycling rates are as such slower to catch up. Plastic bottle recycling in Ireland has a great future as unlike other materials which need plants of many hundreds of thousand to be viable plastic recycling plants can be viable and profitable at much smaller scales of 10 -20,000 tonnes. Indeed we already have a number of end plastic users who would be ideal outlets for collected plastic bottles. Such as Wellman in Cavan, JFC in Tuam, Carberry etc.”

RRW 2007 Day 2 - Glass

Ireland’s Glass Recycling Record Smashed

- Bottle and Jar Deposits Enough to Fill the Croke Park Pitch 58 Feet High

A record 65,000 tonnes of glass from Irish households has been recycled by Rehab Recycle in the last year – that’s enough bottles and jars to fill the pitch at Ireland’s largest sporting stadium, Croke Park, to a height of 58 feet, or if the bottles were placed end to end, to circle the entire globe over one and a half times.

A new survey by Rehab Recycle reveals that 211 million individual glass containers – enough glass bottles to stretch approximately 64,000 kilometres were collected in Rehab Recycle bottle banks around the country in the last 12 months.

In the past three years, glass deposits at Rehab Recycle bring sites have increased by a staggering 30 per cent.

Compiled as part of Repak’s Recycling Week, the study also shows that the people of Cork are once again the country’s best recyclers with deposits of some 61 bottles and jars for every man woman and child in the county during the first eight months of the year. Galway and Leitrim were the next best counties with an average of 57 and 53 items of glass recycled per person respectively.

The largest increase in glass recycling came in County Mayo, up by 30 per cent to 1,473 tonnes of glass, followed by Kilkenny where figures rose by 26 per compared to the same period last year. The bring bank at Superquinn Shopping Centre in Lucan, Dublin claimed the honour of being Ireland’s busiest bring site with deposits of nearly one million (969,000) bottles and jars recorded during the period from January to August 2007.

“In the past six years, deposits at Rehab Recycle’s bring centres nationwide have more than doubled from 30,000 tonnes of waste glass to 65,000 tonnes last year. These returns represent an extraordinary effort by Irish people to recycle,” said Rehab Recycle general manager, Bob Rowat.

Speaking at the launch of Repak Recycling Week, Mr. Andrew Hetherington, CEO, Repak, said: “Whilst Ireland now has a very impressive recycling rate for glass at nearly 80 per cent, there are many other materials that households need to concentrate on and we hope to highlight these materials by dedicating each day of recycling week to one specific packaging material. In particular, we need to focus on the smaller more valuable packaging types like plastic and aluminum where recycling rates are lower at 24 per cent and 30 per cent respectively.”

Rehab Recycle
Rehab Recycle’s combined glass, can, paper and waste electrical recycling facilities account for in excess of 90,000 tonnes of material each year, including some 211 million bottles and jars. The company, which has over 1,800 bring centres nationwide, is part of a unique integrated employment model and has a workforce of 162 people, 104 of whom are people with disabilities. Visit http://www.gandonenterprises.ie/ for more information.

RRW 2007 Day 1 - Aluminium

Convenience foods and takeaway culture impacting on aluminium recycling rates
· aluminium trays and foils dumped worth estimated 3 million euro per

annum
· estimated 90 million Aluminium trays dumped each year
· Repak target takeaways in attempt to improve recycling rates of

aluminium trays
· Counter reminders send to takeaways throughout the country
· Improving recycling rates of aluminium foils and trays would boast our

overall aluminium recycling rates
· Recycling aluminium saves 95% energy versus primary raw materials
· Aluminium can recycling hits circa 50% but Aluminium foils and trays

recycling rates are lower
"In Ireland the can recycling rate has steadily increased to an all time high of circa 50%, an impressive improvement n last year. In order to improve these recycling results we will continue to work hard on increasing aluminium beverage can but also other aluminium packaging types. Based on our experiences in toher EU countries particularly Switzerland and Great Britain we know aluminium food trays and foils are collected separately for recycling. recycling. As these aluminium containers are also increasingly being used in Ireland to packa convenience food products collection and recycling of these items will increase our overall aluminium recycling rates.” according to Maarten Labberton of European Aluminium Association.

In excess of 90 million aluminium trays are consumed daily in Ireland from takeaways, prepacked meals and confectionary. However, while the can recycling rate is circa 50%, the overall aluminium recycling rate stands at around 30%, this is due to the fact that flexible foils are increasing in use but currently we are not recycling trays and foils as much as we could, despite aluminium being one of the most valuable and most recyclable materials.
In light of this Repak and the EAA have launched a call for takeaway devotees to wash out their takeaway trays and place them in the recycling bin or aluminium Bring Banks. Also they are calling on people to recycle their other aluminium food trays, which are used for tarts, pies etc. In an effort to highlight the need to recycle trays, Repak has distributed counter top recycling reminders to all Chinese, Indian and other takeaways restaurants throughout the country.
“Aluminium cans and foils can be recycled endlessly and new drinks cans could be back on the shelf as quickly as 60 days after they have been collected for recycling. Recycling cans results in a 95% energy saving and it is saves extremely valuable natural resources. Because one tonne of recycled aluminium replaces the production of one tonne of primary metal, thus reducing the carbon footprint substantially.”

“Simply washing out and placing your used food trays into the recycling bin or can bank will reduce landfill, use less natural resources and save on waste bills. We are also calling for people to remember other aluminium materials that can be recycled such as tomato puree tubes and aluminium foil and not forgetting the millions of aluminium cans we consume each year.” added Mr. Labberton

Commenting Andrew Hetherington, CEO Repak said “Ireland compares well internationally on our recycling rates for Aluminium cans but not for other aluminium packaging. This year during Repak Recycling Week we are focusing on one material a day to highlight the extra packaging types that people can recycle. Last year we recorded an exceptional packaging recycling rate of approximately 64% but the only way to increase this rate further is to target the items that people have not readily being recycling such as aluminium trays and foils. Frequently people are simply unaware of the wide range of items they could be recycling but we also ask that people see the environmental good that can be achieved by making the extra effort".