Recycling with Repak

National Spring Clean Results

2009-09-23T00:54:00.000-07:00

Just when An Taisce thought that the annual National Spring Clean campaign couldn't get any bigger, 10% more people took part this year than in 2008. As ever Repak sponsored the event providing colour coded bags for the collection of litter for recycling. This year there were over 505,000 volunteers involved in more than 5,058 clean ups througout Ireland. That's a lot of litter collected. In fact 1,800 tonnes of litter was collected with 630 tonnes recycled. Congratulations on another successful National Spring Clean and well done to everyone who took part. For more information click here. Pictured here are the Donegal Ayslum Seekers at their clean up this year.

Ireland's tidiest towns unveiled

2009-09-21T04:34:00.000-07:00

Emly, Co. Tipperary is Ireland's tidiest town. The South Tipperary village was chosen from 720 entrants from all over Ireland. The awards took place in Royal Hospital Kilmainham on 7th September and on the day many other towns took home awards too. Among them, Tallanstown was awarded the Repak sponsored 'Best Presented Bring Bank Award'. This award recognises the effort of towns throughout Ireland to keep their bring banks clean and tidy. Repak also sponsors the Regional Award. There are 7 regions in the TidyTowns competition, for the full list of winners click here.
Well done to everyone who took part in TidyTowns this year and congratulations to all the finalists and winners!
Pictured (l-r) are Donal Horgan, MD of SuperValu, two members of the Emly TidyTown Committee and Mr. John Gormley, T.D., Minister for the Enviornment, Heritage and Local Government.

Packaging Ireland Exhibition

2009-06-17T07:14:00.000-07:00

The Packaging Ireland Exhibition started today in the RDS. It is on all day and also runs tomorrow (18th June) from 10am to 5pm. The event is already a success with good feedback from the exhibitors and plenty of visitors getting the information they need to help improve their packaging. Repak is at stand 77. So why not come down to the RDS today or tomorrow to meet with our Packaging Technologists or attend one of the many presentations at the learnShop.

National Spring Clean wraps up in Dublin's East Wall

2009-05-05T03:36:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday the National Spring Clean team descended on East Wall to mark the final clean up in the annual event. Repak, along with other sponors The Wrigley Company and Coca Cola were guests on the morning and saw first hand the community pride and long listing range of activites in the area for the clean up. The clean up was supported by The Lord Mayor of Dublin Eibhlin Byrne, the East Wall Community Policing Unit and the East Wall Residents Association to name but a few. Once again An Taisce's National Spring Clean was a resounding success. Over 490,000 people throughout Ireland took part - an increase of 10% from 2008!! Well done to all this years volunteers.

Earth Day at Symantec

2009-04-23T00:46:00.000-07:00

Repak member, Symantec hosted an Earth Day exhibition for employees at their new offices in Ballycoolin on Wednesday 22nd April. The day was a great success. There were exhibitors from An Taisce, Junior Achievers Ireland, Bird Watching Ireland and, of course, Repak.

Symantec staff were really interested in all of the stands; there were lots of discussions, questions and feedback for all of the companies there. Symantec themselves had a stand asking employees to fill out environment questionnaires and ran a colouring competition for employees' children!

Repak gave out lots of flyers on recycling information and were able to answer direct recycling queries from staff.

Well done to Symantec for organising the day; it's clear that all of their environmental policies and initiatives are having a positive effect on employees and the environment!

Repak Easter Appeal

2009-04-22T01:06:00.000-07:00

The sun was shining down on the PR launch on Good Friday for the annual Repak Easter Appeal. All the ingredients were there for a great photo shoot; sun, chocolate and a giant Easter Egg!

After all of the Easter festivities, Repak were urging consumers to make an extra effort to recycle any additional packaging. With 6.8 million Easter eggs consumed, that's a lot of packaging to get recycling! And it's just as well there's a mini marathon and a full marathon coming up because all of these Easter eggs will take us almost 2 million marathons to burn of all the calories!

The packaging on Easter eggs has really come a long way too. Manufacturers such as Cadbury's, Nestlé and Mars have gone to great lengths to reduce the cardboard and plastic on the Easter eggs. In some cases up to 30% less packaging is on the eggs. A lot of the packaging is 100% recyclable and can be accepted into your recycle bin at home.

If you do have any queries on what can go into your recycle bin you can contact the company that collects it. A list of contractors can be found here. You can also log onto www.recyclemore.ie to find handy hints and tips and to find out more about recycling.

Get cleaning with National Spring Clean

2009-04-07T02:37:00.000-07:00

April is traditionally a month of spring cleaning and it's no different again this year with the launch of An Taisce's annual National Spring Clean. Now in it's 11th year NSC is Ireland's largest and most popular anti litter initiative.

Once again Repak are proud sponsors of the event, providing colour coded bags to all volunteers for the collection of recyclable cans and plastic bottles. Repak's involvement has really helped to increase the recycling rates of the litter collected; did you know that when NSC started recycling was practically non-existent? Now 35% of the waste collected is collected! That's good news for everyone involved!

You can register your own spring clean on the NSC website, contact them directly on 01 400 2219 for an information pack or email nsc@antaisce.org
Good luck with your spring cleaning!

It's TidyTowns Time Again!

2009-04-02T02:44:00.001-07:00

What a success last year's TidyTowns was! There were over 700 entrants and the number of people involved reached the hundreds of thousands.
Repak is involved again this year sponsoring two awards; The Regional Award and the Best Presented Bring Bank Award.
The Regional Award is awarded to the top scoring entrant in each section, of which there are seven, and it attracts a prize of €2,000 to each winner.
The Best Presented Bring Bank Award is a special award to recognise community support in maintaining local bring bank sites and assisting in their general appearance and usage. A winner is awarded €1,000 in each of the seven regions and then a prize of another €1,000 is given to the best bring bank overall.
To enter the 2009 TidyTowns competition you can log onto the TidyTowns website, call the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government on 01 888 2300 or email tidytowns@environ.ie.
You can find out more about the Repak sponsored awards and download entry forms on the Repak website. So good luck again this year and maybe we'll see you at the awards!

Repak showcases its Schools Carbon Calculator at the successful An Taisce Green Schools Awards

2009-03-09T09:20:00.000-07:00

Over the last two weeks, the Green Schools team at An Taisce and Repak have been travelling the country to award Green Flags to over 250 schools. I was there at the first flag ceremony in Galway and what a success it was. We had a morning and an afternoon session, awarding flags to schools in Galway City and County, Mayo, Roscommon and Leitrim. I met girls and boys receiving their first green flag from senior infant classes and older students from primary schools receiving their third green flag for the water programme.

I also attended the Dublin ceremonies in Croke Park. We used to joke that the Green Schools programme was getting so big that eventually we'd need somewhere the size of Croke Park to have the awards ceremony!! There are now over 3,100 schools in the programme and we needed two days at Croke Park to give out all the flags! What a busy two days it was too. We had schools from all over Leinster, travelling up early in the morning from places such as Wicklow and Monaghan to receive the prestigious green flag.

On the first day of the Croke Park events, Repak launched a Schools Carbon Calculator. Repak has been sponsoring Green Schools since 2008 and has committed €1 million to the programme to 2011. We designed the calculator specifically with the programme in mind to help schools achieve their goal and to get a good understanding of how they are doing on reducing their carbon footprint. With the calculator we were able to figure out that all the schools in the programme have helped to save over 7,000 tonnes of carbon emissions. Also, over 200 million litres of clean drinking water has been saved; enough to fill 85 Olympic sized pools. And if that wasn't enough 500,000 litres of petrol have been saved in the transport part of the programme; that's enough to keep a car going for 5 million kilometres!

To use the carbon calculator for your schools and to see how you're doing against the national average of all Irish schools you can access the Repak Green Schools Carbon Calculator on www.greenschoolsireland.org, or go to the Repak website; www.repak.ie. To find out more on how schools across the country are doing in the Green Schools Programme log onto the press release section of our website. Or if you want to check your own carbon footprint, follow the links to the Repak homepage to use our carbon calculator for homes

Recycling is the best environmental option

2009-02-02T06:10:00.000-08:00

A report released by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) in the UK claims that media reports suggesting that recycling adds to global warming are factually incorrect.
According to their reaearch 8.6 million tonnes of paper was recycled in the UK and abroad last year. This saved 11 million tonnes of CO2 emmissions, which is the equivalent of taking 3.6 million cars off the roads!
People who are concerned about the CO2 emmissions emitted when transporting the materials for recycling to China will be pleased to hear that selling the UK's used plastic bottles and paper actually saves carbon emissions. Shipping these materials more than 10,000 miles produces less CO2 than sending them to kandfill in the UK and using brand new materials.

Green Christmas 2008

2009-01-05T09:08:00.000-08:00

Green Christmas 2008 was launched on the 23rd December 2008. The annual Repak campaign encourages consumers to recyle all the extra packaging produced over the Christmas period. We estimate that up to 79,800 tonnes of packaging is expected to be created including enough aluminium to run tinsel around the earth 123 times.

Repak also estimate Irish consumers alone will consume:
• 20.5 million wine bottles
• 5.5 million spirit bottles
• 49 million aluminium beer cans
• 25 million soft drinks cans
• 13.5 million beer bottles
• 40 million plastic drinks bottles
• 4.5 million cardboard sweet boxes
• 3 million cardboard toy boxes
• 4.5 million rolls of wrapping paper

So if you are short of a new years resolution why not make recycling your new year waste a goal for 2009!

Robert Bradford's "Plastic Family" video

2008-10-08T04:36:00.000-07:00

Here's the video from the launch of Repak Recycling Week where artist Robert Bradford speaks to Alma Jordan about his art exhibition made out of old toys!

Repak Survey Results Podcast

2008-10-06T07:11:00.000-07:00

Darrell Crowe, Marketing Manager for Repak talks about the results from the recent survey conducted by Repak that found that 50% of householders neglect the rest of the house when it comes to recycling. See release below.

Repak Launch Podcast

2008-10-06T04:54:00.000-07:00

Alma Jordan, Marketing Executive for Repak discusses Repak Recycling Week 2008, the Robert Bradford exhibition and how best to recycle during Repak Recycling Week.

Picture: Artist robert Bradford with CEO of Repak Andrew Hetherington

Interview with Robert Bradford

2008-10-06T04:37:00.000-07:00

To coincide with the launch of Repak Recycling Week 2008, Repak unveiled Robert Bradford’s “Plastic Family” of recycled goods. The exhibition which can be seen in the Window of BT2 Grafton Street and Dundrum Town Centre, Dublin can be seen for the duration of Repak Recycling Week between 6th-12th October.

Most of the pieces are made from old and used toys and one piece “toy soldier” stands at a staggaring 6″6′! Listen to the interview with the artist Robert Bradford.

Try out our Recycling Game

2008-10-06T04:07:00.000-07:00

http://www.recyclemore.ie/repakgame.swf

See how many items you get into the recycling bins.

Repak Urges Householders to Recycle More and “Get out of the Kitchen” as over 50% Neglect the Rest of the House

2008-10-06T02:39:00.000-07:00

· 50% of householders not recycling from other rooms outside the kitchen
· Recycling rate needs to increase by 15%, equivalent to two extra greens bin per household
· Only 45% of respondents recycle regularly from the bathroom
· Renters are recycling less than homeowners
· 50% not recycling aerosol cans, over a third not recycling plastic detergent and shampoo

bottles.
· Recyclers urged to recycle an extra 100,000 tonnes of used packaging in 2008 to meet

Ireland’s target of 750,000 tonnes

Thousands of tonnes of household waste are landfilled every year due to householder recycling misconceptions. Recent research carried out by Repak shows 50 percent of the Irish population are not recycling regularly from other rooms in the house beyond the kitchen. 89% of respondents said they recycled regularly from the kitchen, while only 45% regularly recycle from the bathroom, 43% from the bedroom and only 24% recycle from the home office or study.

Repak are asking householders and businesses to recycle more used packaging to help reach the 750,000 tonnes target by the end of 2008. This is an increase of 100,000 tonnes from 2007, so we have to recycle up to 15% more than was recycled last year. People therefore need to double their recycling efforts, filling an extra two green recycling bins per household.

There are a number of materials in the house which are readily recyclable in the existing collection systems that people are still not recycling. Only 55% of adults recycle steel food cans, only 49% are recycling aerosol cans (shaving foam, air freshner and deodorant cans) and 41% still not recycling sweet or biscuit tins, 45% are still not recycling aluminium or foil trays from, take-aways and cake and tart holders. Over a third of householders 39% are not recycling plastic detergent/cleaning products bottles, 32% are not recycling shampoo or conditioner bottles.

Commenting on the results from the survey, Andrew Hetherington CEO of Repak said “It is clear from the results that there is plenty of room for improvement when it comes to packaging recycling in the home. Recycling in the home is very convenient now as over 1.1 million households now have direct access to a household dry recyclable collection (green bins). So we want to encourage people to scour each room in the house and check what additional packaging items they are not recycling that can be recycled. As part of campaign we are asking people to log onto Recyclemore.ie to learn how and what more they can recycle to help us maximise our recycling efforts.”

The most forgotten recycled items in the house are
· 51% are not recycling aerosol cans for deodorant, air freshener, polish,
· 45% do not recycle foil trays from take aways and tart holders
· 41% are not regularly recycling sweet or biscuit tins
· 39% do not recycle plastic detergent or cleaning products bottles
· 35% do not recycle plastic toiletry bottles

Renters are falling behind
An interesting comparison to arise from the survey was that those renting are also less likely to recycle with an average claimed recycling rate of 42% versus 53% for home owners. Their propensity to recycle from different areas of the house is also less than for home owners. Only 30% of renters recycle from the bedroom in comparison to 43% for homeowners and 40% recycle from the bathroom regularly versus 54% for home owners.

Apartment dwellers are also less likely to regularly use bottle banks (52%) and recycling centres (27%) as opposed to home owners 72% and 47% respectively.

To help reach the 2008 packaging recycling target of 750,000 tonnes Repak are calling on all householders, apartment or house owners, to recycle more used packaging from around the household. Repak are highlighting the forgotten recycling hotspots and items in their advertising and on their website Recyclemore.ie to try and increase packaging recycling rates. By logging on to the website households can get hints and tips on recycling all around the house and from each individual room and help grow Ireland’s overall packaging recycling rate.

Repak Recycling Week 2008

2008-10-01T08:08:00.000-07:00

Recycle More - Lets get it sorted

· Repak Recycling Week launched by first of it’s kind art exhibition
· Recycling target for 2008 is 250,000 tonnes
· Recyclemore.ie launched as a quick guide to help consumers
· 7th Annual Repak Recycling Awards take place Thursday 9th of October

Repak Recycling Week 2008 is launching with a splash of colour as they unveil artist Robert Bradford to Ireland for the first time for a 10 day exhibition in the windows of BT2 Grafton St, featuring his unique recycled sculptures. The exhibition will start on the 1st of October and will run right through Repak Recycling Week which takes place from the 6th-12th October.

As Repak host their 8th Annual Repak Recycling Week campaign with the theme ‘Recycle More- Let’s Get it Sorted’ Robert’s work will serve to encourage people to look at all the different types of material that can be recycled and to realize that recycled materials have an afterlife and are not finished once they go in to the green bin.

This year Repak are calling on householders and businesses to help achieve an ambitious Packaging recycling target of 750,000 tonnes. This target is up 100,000 tonnes on last year which means recyclers need to increase their recycling rate by 15%.

Andrew Hetherington commenting on this target said “Irish Consumers have to be commended for the achievements to date. They have recycled over 3.6 million tonnes of packaging waste in the last 11 years which is the equivalent of 2.8 million tonnes of carbon emissions savings, making it one of the top six EU member states for packaging recycling. However, this year we are asking people to recycle more and to check every item of packaging in the house and consider whether it can be placed in their Household recycling bins or brought to a recycling centre”

As well as the art exhibition Repak have many other initiatives planned to help raise awareness of recycling during Repak Recycling Week:
1. Repak have also launched a new website called Recyclemore.ie which is designed to encourage more packaging recycling in the Home, Office and School. Teachers and families can download posters from the site to help keep get them actively involved recycling activities over the week.
2. Posters detailing common packaging items that can be recycled have been distributed nationwide to local libraries.
3. Repak in conjunction with REHAB Recycling are postering bottle banks nationwide to highlight the amount of glass we are still not recycling that could be as part of the overall theme Recycle More
4. Repak have also developed a Bebo page specifically for Repak Recycling Week 2008 and which will enable the online audience to engage with Repak over the week and view hints and tips on recycling in the household as well as videos and images of the art exhibition in situ
5. Also it is running an educational campaign with ENFO where by information will be displayed in ENFO offices about recycling in the home and recycling from different rooms in the home. This information will be in the ENFO offices for the whole month of October.
6. The 7th Annual Repak awards will also take place during the week on Thursday the 9th of October at the Four Seasons Hotel, Dublin. The awards recognise the efforts and ingenuity of its Repak Industry Members, Local Authorities and Collectors in the area of packaging prevention, reuse and recycling. There will be more details on the winners and finalists issued during the week

Robert’s art is one example of how recycled materials are used once they have been collected from a household’s green bin but many materials can be used over and over again to create different items:

· 27 recycled PET plastic bottles will create one fleece jacket
· 670 aluminium cans can create one bicycle
· 19,000 steel cans can be used to make one car
· 150 recycled plastic PET bottles is enough to make a rug or small carpet
· 1 steel can be used to make one key and by producing the key from the recycled steel it saves up to 80% of the energy needed to create the key

Robert’s most recent work which is entitled ‘Plastic Family’ is primarily made from old and recycled toys and 12 pieces of his work will be on display in the windows of BT2 Grafton St and BT2 Dundrum over the duration of Repak Recycling Week which runs from the 6th-12th of October.

Brown Thomas and BT2 are long standing members of Repak contributing towards the recovery and recycling of the packaging they supply to their customers. Through participating members, Repak last year raised €27 millon in Packaging levies to support packaging recycling in Ireland.

Seeing the Signs - Your guide to Plastic

2008-09-04T02:36:00.000-07:00

In all there are 7 grades of plastic. Some of which are easily recycled within Ireland's current recycling infrastructure.

Listed below is a full outline of these plastics and their recyclability.

1. Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET)
This can be recycled in most household recycling schemes

2. High Density Polyethylene (HDPE)

This can be recycled in most household recycling schemes
contact your local authority or recovery operator for confirmation

3. Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)
At the moment this cannot be recycled.

4. Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE)

This can be recycled in most household recycling schemes
contact your local authority or recovery operator for confirmation

5. Polypropylene (PP)

Some recovery operators do recycle PP plastic, contact your local authority or recovery operator for confirmation

6. Polystyrene (PS)
PS recycling has been possible in Ireland since 2007, it is currently been rolled out on a natinal level. Rehab recycling can be contact for PS recycling in your area.

7. Other

At the moment this cannot be recycled.

The Beauty of Recycling

2008-09-04T02:20:00.000-07:00

Here is quick step by step guide to what can and can’t be recycled from our beauty products and how to recognise for yourself the products that can be recycled!

For most women the last thing they think about, when lashing on a lotion or a lippie, is where the empty packaging will end up. But while we are making ourselves beautiful we should also try and be mindful of mother earth’s beauty and make an effort to recycle anything we can from our bedrooms and bathroom and start thinking about how to reduce the waste produced by our beauty regimes. Many high profile, high quality cosmetic and beauty companies have a real environmental conscience so this means that the majority of packaging from beauty products is fully recyclable.

So what are the products that can and can’t be recycled and if they can be recycled, how and where?

Shampoo and Conditioner Bottles: These bottles are fully recyclable and once washed out can either be put in your green bin (check with your local waste collector policy) or else can be taken to the local recycling centre (check Repak.ie to find your nearest recycling centre). Also where possible it is always good to try and choose bulk-size shampoos and conditioners as well as products with minimal external packaging. The fewer small containers you use, the less waste you'll produce. Bigger is better The L'Oreal Elvive range is an example of a brand that has larger sized bottles of shampoo and conditioners to reduce packaging waste.

Glass Foundation bottles: The majority of foundations come in small glass bottles. These are also fully recyclable like any glass bottle such as glass wine or beer bottles which many are used to recycling. These can be taken to the glass bottle banks or recycling centres when you are taking all your other glass materials to the bottle bank.

Aerosol Deodorants: The aerosol cans used for deodorants or hairsprays can also be recycled. These bottles are made of aluminium but as it is a pressurised can it will need to be taken to your recycling centre and cannot yet be recycled straight through the green bin.

Paper and cardboard packaging: All the wrapping and boxing around various products such as, perfumes, make up, moisturisers, clothes, tissue boxes can all be recycled, it is just paper and cardboard same as you find in your kitchen so this can all go in the green bin.

Cleanser and Toner bottles: Cleanser and toner bottles are made from the same type of hard plastic as your shampoo and conditioner bottles and again are fully recyclable. So make sure that popping these in the green bin when they are finished becomes part of your beauty ritual as well.

Vaseline Lip balm tins: These small lip balms tins are made of aluminium which is highly recyclable, same as a soft drinks can so this can be recycled by popping it straight in to your green bin.Juicy Tube lip gloss: this tubing is also made of PET plastic and as such is fully recyclable. Put a little box aside in your room to collect all the little plastic bottles and tubing that can be recycled and when you have enough take a trip to the recycling centre and get it all recycled.

Key Tips

Outlined above is a broad array of the type of products that can be recycled but if you come across a product not listed above and you want to check if it is recyclable, here is quick learner guide on how to find out if the packaging is recyclable or not!

PET packaging; Big name cosmetic companies who use it on some of their packaging include: Clinique, Clarins, Redken, Nivea, Johnson & Johnson, the letters PET will be written either on the side or the bottom of the bottles and you will see a symbol of 3 Arrows chasing each other, encircling the number 1 (which indicates PET) so you can be sure that this is recyclable

HDPE packaging is also accepted in a lot of recycling centres, generally not in your green bin but check with your own individual waste collector if you are not sure. HDPE plastics are used in shampoo bottles, fake tan bottles and moisturiser bottles again the letters HDPE will be written on either the side or the bottom of the bottles and the symbol of 3 arrows chasing each other, encircling the number 2 will also indicate that it is HDPE plastic and can be recycled

Always look for the PET logo (three green arrows chasing each other) when purchasing your beauty products and cosmetics.

Repak Members Conference Podcast Part 3

2008-08-07T02:11:00.000-07:00

In our third instalment of podcasts from the Repak members conference, Bob Schmitz, European Regulatory Affairs Consultant / specialist on deposit systems explains why he believes the Irish collection system is superior to deposit systems operational in other European countries.

To listen to the podcast click Here:

and to download the slides from the presentation click here: http://www.repak.ie/files/Bob%20Scmitz.pdf

Repak Members Conference Podcast Part 2

2008-07-23T08:14:00.000-07:00

Andrew Hetherington, CEO of Repak discusses how the changing demographics and households in Ireland are leading to increased packaging at this year’s Repak members conference.

To listen to an excerpt of the speech click here:

And to download the slides from the presentation click here: http://www.repak.ie/files/AH_Memconf_08%20(2).pdf

Members conference podcast

2008-07-17T02:04:00.000-07:00

Next in our series of podcast we will roll out the highlights from some of the speeches at this year’s Repak members conference.

The first speech is that presented by Michael Kitt, T.D., Minister of State at the Department of the Environment where he discusses why the Government have put waste management at the top of the political agenda and the importance of packaging waste recycling for the Irish Economy.

The full speech can be downloaded here: http://www.repak.ie/files/documents/Minister%20Kitt.pdf

Packaging Prevention Course Podcast

2008-07-02T03:49:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

In the latest Repak podcast, Declan Martin of Repak gives his opinion on the new Packaging Prevention course launched by Repak and how it will effect Irish producers.

This is the first course of its kind in Ireland and will help “design-out” over-packaging on products. The course is run in conjunction with FAS and RPS.

Please click play below to listen to the short podcast.

Repak Members Conference 2008

2008-06-23T07:41:00.000-07:00

· 6.6% increase in tonnes recycled in 2007
· 150 kilos per person of used packaging recycled in 2007
· 643,000 tonnes recycled in total a 40,000 tonne increase on last year
· 3.6 million tonnes of used packaging diverted from landfill since 1998
· Growth in Repak membership and Packaging prevention ear marked as key challenges to reaching 2011 targets
· One company shows significant financial saving of nearly €0.5 million from packaging minimisation

Delegates at the 2008 Repak Members Conference were told of a 6.6% increase in recycling rates for 2007. This equates to an increase of 40,000 tonnes.

The 643,000 tonnes of used packaging recycled in 2007 is equivalent to 150 kilos recycled per person in Ireland in 2007. This brings the total amount of used packaging diverted from landfill to in excess of €3.6 million tonnes since 1998. Over the same period Repak has invested over €145 million supporting packaging recycling, with €27 million raised in packaging levies from Repak members in 2007 alone.

“Despite increasing the amount raised from industry by over 14% in 2007” Dr. Andrew Hetherington, CEO of Repak warned “costs will increase as we dig deeper into the household recycling bin to meet higher packaging recycling targets.

He further added “the key to reaching the 2011 targets set by the EU will be growing compliance with producer responsibility and driving packaging prevention and minimisation which is the main focus of the Repak Members Conference today”.

Against this backdrop the conference also sees the introduction of a new booklet “Packaging Optimisation: Decision or Dilemma”. This booklet was compiled after an intensive study of the packaging supply chain in Ireland, commissioned by Repak and the EPA and carried out by UK consultants Perchards. The case studies in the booklet show the benefits, gains and challenges facing companies who are attempting to reduce packaging.

"We have made giant strides in improving our national performance in the recovery and recycling of waste and packaging waste has played a central role in these developments - thanks in no small part to the efforts of Repak and all its producer members" - said Mr. Michael Kitt, TD, Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

"Our focus needs to remain on the achievement of our international targets, while simultaneously reducing packaging waste generation. I remain confident that, by continuing to work together, we can achieve these common objectives and be to the fore in packaging waste prevention and recovery across the EU", continued Minister Kitt.

Pictured: Minister Kitt addressing delegates

Minister Kitt added that he saw the effective enforcement of the new Regulations as being a key priority. "We cannot allow those who free-ride on the system to enjoy a competitive advantage over those producers who comply with their legal obligations. I want to see the local authorities and the Office of Environmental Enforcement intensify the enforcement efforts to ensure the success of the consolidated regulations. That will require the co-operation and active support of all the stakeholders in the sector" - the Minister concluded.

The computer software manufacturer, Symantec revealed a €400,000 financial saving over 12 months from their various packaging prevention and minimisation initiatives. This was announced as they presented their exemplary case study at the conference. In total they prevented 354 tonnes of packaging being produced. This was through two main initiatives, by encouraging customers to download their product online instead of buying a hard copy and secondly, significant overhauls of their packaging design resulting in the reduction of 108 metric tonnes of packaging.

Speaking at the conference Dr. Andrew Hetherington, CEO of Repak said “The reduction and prevention of packaging will be a main focus and challenge for Repak in the future. We commissioned this report on the packaging supply chain to give us a better understanding of how and where we can have an impact on the packaging produced and we plan to use the findings of the study to further progress our work in this area.

Also speaking at the conference was Dermot Breen, CEO of Tesco. Tesco have been very progressive in their approach to reducing their overall carbon footprint and have been longstanding members of Repak and in fact were recipients of the Repak Best Practice Award last year. At the conference Mr Breen discussed the initiatives Tesco have being taking to reduce their overall carbon foot print by looking at their energy consumption, transportation usage and bio fuels, as well as pursuing packaging reduction strategies. Colm Munnelley, the recently appointed Packaging Prevention Officer for Repak also spoke on the day discussing various initiatives that Repak are undertaking to assist industry, the most recent one of these being the Packaging Prevention Course design by by Repak in conjunction with the EPA and RPS which is run by FAS and was launched in the past month.

Copies of the case studies booklet are available on request from Colm Munnelly and through the Repak Website.

Pictured with their new packaging concept at Repak's 2008 Member's conference are Symantec's Siobhan Connell and Raquel Alonzo

Repak's Members Conference Agenda 2008

2008-06-13T03:34:00.000-07:00

EVENT BOOKED OUT

Repak Members Conference 2008
Hilton Dublin Airport Hotel
Northern Cross –Jct. of N32 & Malahide Road,
Dublin 17
Thursday 19th June 2008

Moderator
Mary Kennedy of RTE’s ‘Nationwide’ Programme

Conference Theme

The Challenge of Change -

“Optimising Packaging and Packaging Recycling in Ireland”

Conference Programme

Part 1 Repak and the new Legislative Framework/DoEHLG challenges to industry

08.45 Registration/Coffee

09.15 Conference Opening remarks by Repak Chairman, Adrian Goodrich.

09.30 Keynote address by the Minister of State at the Dept of the Environment,
Heritage & Local Govt., Michael Kitt , TD.

09.45 “The challenges facing Repak over the next 4 years” - Dr. Andrew
Hetherington, CEO, Repak

10.15 The Government’s challenge to introduce mandatory deposits on beverage
containers - The European Perspective: Guest speaker, Bob Schmitz, European Regulatory Affairs Consultant

10.45 1st Question & Answer session

11.00 Tea/Coffee break

Part 2 Members meeting the Challenges – Prevention and Best Practice case studies

11.20 Packaging Prevention Programme – challenges and opportunities - Colm
Munnelly, Repak’s Packaging Prevention Technologist

11.50 Members’ Best Practice - case study No. 1 – Dermot Breen, Director of Corporate Affairs, Tesco Ireland

12.20 Members’ Best Practice - case study No. 2 - John Connolly, Director of EMEA Supply Chain, Symantec Limited

12.40 Open Forum – final Q & A’s – Conference closes

12.45 Buffet lunch in the main dining room next to the conference room

Repak urging people to recycle more

2008-06-13T03:15:00.000-07:00

As the first in our series of national packaging recycling campaign comes to an end, (don't worry we are back in July !), we in Repak are looking to far off lands, (well the UK) to see how we compare.

As we already know more and more people are recycling however (and I do hate to nag), with recycling growth rates slowing and with us still only recycling circa 35% of used household packaging we need people to recycle more and to better use the current recycling infrastructure that is available.

Therefore our current range of campaigns are geared to highlight the less frequently recycled items. People are exceptionally good at recycling wine and beer bottles but we seem to forget about the food jars, jam jars pickle jars etc. Likewise recycling plastic drinks bottles, not problem here, but we do not as readily recycle shampoo and shower gel bottles, detergent bottles, cleanser bottles, sauce bottles etc.

The UK has roped in the talents of Gail Porter to get their message across, click here for more on their current Recycle Now campaign.

For more inspiration also checkout their 'Why Recycling Matters' page can I do page' for more tips and advice.

New Initiative to Assist Irish industry ‘design out’ over-Packaging Launched by Repak.

2008-05-27T03:36:00.000-07:00

· First Irish Packaging Prevention course launched by Repak
· Repak initiatives seek to design out packaging growth over the next number of years
· Every 1% of packaging prevented would reduce packaging waste by c10,000 tonnes.
· Voluntary packaging reduction agreement with Irish Retail to be announced as part of

Repak Packaging Prevention Program

With increased consumer concern about the volumes of packaging, recycling producer responsibility scheme, Repak has launched a major training initiative to help Irish industry ‘design out’ over-packaging on products. The nationwide training programme, which is the first of its kind, was developed in conjunction with FAS and RPS.

The course development was funded by Repak and the EPA as part of their packaging prevention programme. This initiative follows a series of earlier initiatives designed to reduce the amount of packaging generated with future plans to develop a voluntary packaging agreement for the Irish retail sector. This agreement will introduce a commitment by the sector to reduce packaging to agreed levels.

The first Packaging Optimisation training programme took place in the Mullingar Park Hotel today and was attended by representatives from the food and drink industries, major retailer chains, packaging producers and wholesalers. The course aims to create awareness and knowledge of packaging waste prevention and enable companies to identify and implement their own packaging optimisation initiatives. Some of the areas that will be explored include light-weighting of materials, alternative packaging solutions and use of replacement materials.

The FETAC Level 6 accredited course is run over 3 modules of 2 days each,and covers Packaging Waste Legislation & Policy, Supply Chain Analysis & Prevention, Impact Analysis; Economic and Environmental Impacts and Organisational Implementation. The course also includes best practice site visits, interactive sessions, comprehensive case studies, video clips and practical exercises. Twenty two participants from a wide spectrum of industry covering the major retailers, large food and drink suppliers, high tech companies as well as other producers along the supply chain attended the inaugural course on the 27th May.

Commenting on the course Dr. Andrew Hetherington, CEO Repak said “While recycling rates are on target at 60% emphasis must now go on prevention and minimisation of packaging. There is no easy solution to this growing issue as packaging is an essential requirement in product protection, with food wastage and food safety a major consideration. However packaging design is a major consideration and we are helping to equip Irish industry with the tools to pro actively manage this challenge. This is one initiative within our Repak packaging prevention program. To help drive additional change in the UK the government funded WRAP program and the innovation fund was specifically targeted to design out packaging growth.”

Repak and the EPA under their packaging prevention program are looking to design out packaging growth and to see if packaging growth can be decoupled from economic and social economic drivers over the coming years. Every 1% of packaging prevented will result in the equivalent of 10,000 tonnes reduction in total waste arisings.

“Whilst packaging waste is a highly visible waste with a recycling rate close to 60% it is more under control than other waste streams such as bio waste. Yet as waste growth and packaging recycling rates continue to grow the time is ripe for us to focus on prevention/optimization.”, commented Andrew Hetherington,

The Packaging Optimisation Training Programme builds on the successes already achieved through a nationwide seminar series, a best practice website http://www.preventandsave.ie/, a household carbon calculator http://www.repak.ie/ and an annual packaging design awards.

Repak will be following this initiative with further projects and is currently working with Retail Ireland with the aim of delivering a voluntary packaging agreement for the Irish retail sector. Most leading retailers are currently on board with this initiative which is currently under negotiation with the key retail players in the Irish market. Repak will seek to expand this initiative to include other sectors to help reduce packaging volumes in the future.

The programme initiated by Repak supported by the EPA was developed by RPS consulting and FAS and will run throughout 2008. Going forward this FETAC accredited course will be run by FAS. Those seeking to enrole on the course should contact Colm Munnelly of Repak on 01 4670190.

Repak Call on Nominations for Best Presented Bring Bank

2008-05-15T04:14:00.000-07:00

Repak is proud to once again be sponsoring the Best Presented Bring Bank Award as part of the National Tidy Towns Competition. Repak are seeking nominations from every town and county around the country. The prize fund of €1,000 per region is awarded to the local Tidy Town Committee. In all there are seven regional winners and one overall winner.

Repak are seeking nominations and will be involved in the final judging of all short-listed nominees for the above award.

Speaking about the award, Darrell Crowe from Repak said “it is vitally important that the areas around bring bank sites are kept tidy and free from littering and by making these sites attractive it encourages more people to recycle and this why Repak is so delighted to sponsor this award. We are calling on you to nominate a bring bank in your area, which you consider a worthy contender for this year’s award and get deserved recognition for your efforts and for your Local Tidy Town Committee”

To nominate a Bring Bank site for this award please send all entries no later than June 20th 2008 to Alma Jordan, Repak Ltd, Red Cow Interchange Estate, 1 Ballymount road, Clondalkin, Dublin 22, alternatively you can email Alma directly at alma.jordan@repak.ie

The judging criteria will be as follows:
Best Presented Bring Bank Judging Criteria

1. Location and positioning of site (e.g. on Main thorough fare etc)
2. Accessibility of Bring bank
3. Directional Sign posting and Signage
4. Tidiness and litter abatement of site
5. Physical Presentation/landscaping of site
6. Usage of site (figures provided by Repak for Short list)
7. Local Community Support/involvement in site management

Photographs must be supplied with each entry. All judging will be completed by August 15th.

(Pictured is the 2007 Overall Winner - Partry Bring Bank, Co. Mayo)

Repak launch new recruitment campaign

2008-05-13T03:13:00.000-07:00

Repak have just started their first in a series of promotional campaigns planned for 2008. In line with the new changes in the regulations, Repak is looking to further extend its membership to include all companies who are now obligated under the amended Irish Packaging Regulations, ie. have a turnover of €1 million per annum and who place 10 tonnes or more packaging on the Irish market.

As usual Enforcement continues to be an important issue for Repak in driving new Membership recruitment. With new Regulations in place Repak have been pushing the enforcement agenda. As part of enforcement of the New Regulations the EPA commissioned the CTC to identify potentially newly obligated companies.

This report was launched to the Enforcement network on the 13th May in Tullamore. The report though limited in its details highlights 5,000 potential targets for follow up by the Local Authority enforcement network. Repak for its part has introduced a number of new initiatives to increase compliance and simplify membership for newly obligated companies.

Repak have also funded and developed a series of enforcement adverts these will include radio and press. The radio campaign was launched on the 12th May on national and local radio stations for two weeks in May using business to business drive time packages. Repak look forward to welcoming large numbers of new members in 2008 as a result of the changes in the new regulations.

Repak's Easter podcast!

2008-05-02T04:08:00.000-07:00

Hi there,

Over the easter period Darrell Crowe, Marketing and Sales Manager for Repak gives an interview about a number of issues around recycling at easter including:
• Irelands capability of coping with the extra packaging being produced over
the Easter period
• Who is to blame regarding excessive packaging
• Easter Vs Christmas recycling
• Easter recycling targets
• Irelands recycling efforts compared to international standards

Click on the play sign below to hear the short podcast!

Have you checked out our Bebo site !!!

2008-04-01T06:12:00.000-07:00

Click on our link above to go directly to our Bebo page, sign yourself up as a friend of Repak and keep in touch with like minded friends on all the latest environmental news and stories.

Recycling Hints and Tips for Easter

2008-03-22T05:57:00.000-07:00

1. Cardboard - Compress/fold cardboard box flat and put into household dry recyclable bin or bring to your nearest recycling centre.

2. Plastics – Most Easter egg molded plastic is PET denoted by a triangle with the number 1 inside. This can go into most plastic bottle collection systems.

3. Foil – We recommend you Scrunch these up, and put the foil in an aluminium can and place in dry recyclable household collection bin or bring it to your nearest recycling centre.
4. Check http://www.repak.ie/ to find the nearest centre in your area and also to check what materials they accept.

5. Make Easter treats instead of buying shop bought eggs. Children will love helping make chocolate cornflake cakes, or creating Easter bunny-shaped biscuits. If you do buy Easter eggs, get ones with minimal recyclable packaging and use a reusable bag to take them home.

6. Recycle Easter cards in your household bin collection. Better still, instead of sending a card, reduce waste by sending your greeting by e-mail.

7. If you are planning a big Easter lunch, buy loose fruit and vegetables, rather than pre-packaged ones.

8. Don't forget to compost the fruit and vegetable peelings. If you've been gardening over the weekend, add your plant prunings and grass cuttings. The compost will improve the quality of the soil and help plants grow.

9. Put any glass bottles, jars and tins in your local BringBank

The Easter Egg tradition

Ø The Easter egg tradition began with painted egg shells but the modern variety is made from chocolate and packaged in a variety of colourful packaging.

Ø The first chocolate eggs were made in Europe in the early 19th century (source Checkout.ie). Since then these chocolate eggs have become richer and more varied and come in ever more elaborate wrapping.
Ø In 2006, the world’s most expensive Easter egg was created by La Maison du Chocolat in London. The Diamond Stella Egg was 60cm tall and covered with 100 half-carat diamonds. Its price tag was a mere snip at $100,000 (source http://www.bornrich.org/).
Ø This pales in comparison with Fabergé eggs. The first Fabergé egg was created in 1884 as an Easter egg for Czar Alexander III. These elaborate eggs were made of gold and silver and decorated with diamonds, sapphires and rubies. A total of 57 were made for various czars. One of these eggs the “Winter Egg” was sold in 2002 for $9.5 million. Another, the Coronation Egg is valued at between $18-24 million (Source http://www.artsjournal.com/).
Ø This price tag may prove a bit steep for most people this Easter. However, the Irish Easter egg market is worth a staggering €32 million, with over 6.5 million sold at an average price of €5 each. People are willing to spend increasingly larger sums of money on Easter eggs but it is worth bearing in mind the other costs to the environment at Easter.

Repak Launch Easter Appeal 2008

2008-03-21T05:51:00.000-07:00

Consumers can save 22,000 tonnes of carbon emissions this Easter, equivalent of removing 12,000 cars from our roads

Egg eater’s carbon foot print can be reduced by 22,000 tonnes, if we recycle over 17,000 tonnes of packaging waste this Easter period
Saving 22,000 carbon tonnes is the equivalent of taking 12,000 cars off the road
Irish chocoholics will munch their way through circa 6.4 million Easter Eggs
624,160 kilos of Easter egg packaging waste will be generated
Repak calls on consumers to recycle all packaging from cardboard and plastic to aluminium foil wrapping.

Target of 45% of all packaging to be recycled this Easter

By recycling the packaging from the 6.4 million eggs consumed Irish households can save up to 811 tonnes of carbon, the equivalent of just over 20,000 bags of coal. The annual chocolate splurge will result in the creation of 624 tonnes of additional used packaging however Irish consumers can offset their chocolate eating guilt by making an egg-stra effort to recycle over the Easter period.

Easter egg boxes are not the only used packaging that householders need to be aware of at this time. The Easter festivities will generate over 39,000 tonnes of used packaging in total. Last year consumers recycled 16,000 tonnes or just over 40% of all packaging but this year Repak is calling on all households to help them recycle 17,500 tonnes of this packaging or over 45% of all packaging generated. If all this packaging is recycled it will result in 22,000 tonnes of carbon saved which is the equivalent of taking 12,000 cars off our roads

Also the housebound festivities on Good Friday result in a significant increase in household packaging. 7 million beverage cans and 2 million bottles of wine will be consumed. Repak is urging all households to use their household collections, Recycling Centres and BringBanks to recycle all of this used packaging rather than sending it to landfill.
Commenting at the launch, Darrell Crowe of Repak said “Easter is a great time for giving and receiving special treats, however we always see a spike in the amount of additional used packaging that is produced at this time. This year we are trying to influence consumer to recycle more of their used packaging and their Easte egg packaging in particular by making them aware of the positive impact recycling can have on the environment as a whole, particularly in the terms of carbon emission savings. We recently launched a household carbon calculator on our website so if consumers are interested in finding out how their carbon footprint can be reduced by taking individual action and by measuring their impact when they visit the carbon calculator on our website.”

It is estimated that if all the eggs consumed in Ireland over the coming Easter period were to be converted into chocolate liquid, weighed or measured, there would be enough eggs equivalent to:
The weight of more than 78 killer whales
Create a path as long as 4 full length triathlons
Households will generate over 42,000 tonnes of used packaging over Easter but last year

only 40% of it was recycled.

It is estimated that over the Easter period Irish households will create the following amount of Easter Egg packaging waste:
17,270 kilos of aluminium foil packaging waste equal to just over 1,000 mountain bikes.
376,596 kilos of card or paper packaging waste which laid out flat would cover an area 50

times the size of Sydney Opera House
230,295 kilos of PET plastic packaging waste if recycled saves 1.6 cubic kilometers of landfill

space

Irish households will generate over 42,000 kilos of used packaging in total over Easter period but last year only 40% of it was recycled.

Irish households will produce circa 42,000 tonnes of used packaging this Easter. Last year over 16,000 tonnes or 40% of all used packaging was recycled during the Easter period this was 14% up on the previous year. Due to Repaks financial supports and campaigns such as Repak Easter appeal, Repak recorded an increase in household packaging recycling of nearly 7% in 2007, recovering approximately 640,000 toones of used packaing.

Householders can visit http://www.repak.ie/ for details of your local Recycling Centres

Repak take over as Green Schools Lead Sponsor

2008-02-19T06:01:00.000-08:00

Repak are delighted to announce their new role as lead sponsor of the An Taisce Green Schools programme, committing to a €1 million sponsorship package.

With over 2,800 schools now in the programme in Ireland, Repak will use this support in keeping Green-Schools initiative at the forefront of environmental education and in helping achieve the Irish Government’s waste reduction and climate change targets.

Speaking on behalf of Repak, Chief Executive Andrew Hetherington said “this sponsorship is a great fit for Repak as we and Green-Schools share the common goal of driving forward the recycling agenda and ensuring we care for the long term future of our environment. We hope through Repak’s sponsorship and direct support Green-Schools can grow to be an even greater success than it is today. “

They join Coca Cola who have supported Green-Schools since it began ten years ago and The Wrigley Company who became sponsors a year later.

Repak takes over as lead sponsor from Greenstar who have supported Green-Schools for the past three years.

A series of green flag award ceremonies took place in February where a further 158 Green Flags were awarded to Montessori, Primary, Secondary and Special schools for their good environmental management practices

This brings the number of schools flying the flag in Ireland to 1,277, which represents nearly one third of all schools in the country.

Speaking at the ceremonies, Green-Schools Manager Cathy Joyce said “It is so important to acknowledge the great work going on all over the country in Green Schools.” “Students, teachers and whole school communities are taking real action and making a positive difference. They are an inspiration to us all.”

Along with Green Schools Repak have also renewed their commitments to the National Spring Clean campaign and also to the National Tidy Towns awards, where they sponsor the Regional and Best Presented Bring Bank Awards.

Repak Found Members Dinner

2008-01-24T06:08:00.000-08:00

Adrian Goodrich, Repak’s chairman, hosted a celebratory members’ dinner at Dublin’s Westin Hotel to mark Repak’s 10th anniversary as Ireland’s packaging compliance scheme. Attending the function were representatives of Repak’s founding members who set up the voluntary producer responsibility scheme back in 1997

Repak’s CEO, Dr. Andrew Hetherington welcomed the attendees and through them, extended to the wider membership his warm appreciation for their financial backing and moral support during the decade. “I thank you for your unstinting support for Repak that has seen Ireland rise to the very pinnacle of the EU packaging recycling league”, he said.

Adrian Goodrich recalled Repak’s early years which he described as ‘a roller coaster ride’. “The task before us in 1997 seemed insurmountable”, he said. “Today, Repak has the wind at its back and is looking forward to a second decade of steady and solid progress”.

As a memento of the occasion, the attendees were each presented with a print of a specially commissioned seascape by Irish artist John Hurley.

Calculating the Present, Counting Down to the Future

2007-12-27T06:02:00.000-08:00

Repak launch first public online Carbon
Calculator

Householders all around the country can now calculate their exact carbon footprint through the first Irish publicly accessible online carbon calculator for households. The carbon calculator which is launched today by Repak in conjunction with the Minister for Environment can be accessed through the Repak website (http://www.repak.ie/) and allows a household to calculate how much carbon they use by inputting details of activities they perform in their daily routine. It also provides hints and tips on how people can reduce their carbon footprint.

The calculator allows users to input specific details about their homes and their lives. It assesses heating methods in the household, calculates energy consumption, and investigates the various types of insulation being used. It also allows the user to input information on the type of lighting they use in the house including energy efficient light bulbs. The calculator finally allows householders to investigate the impact that transportation usage has on their carbon footprint, from private and public transport to international flights. When a householder fills in all these details they are instantly provided with a monthly breakdown of carbon emissions, broken down into three separate sections, Home Energy Usage, Transport and Flights. They are also provided with a comparative average for their particular living situation and practical hints and tips on how each household can reduce their carbon footprint.

The household calculator is the first in a suite being developed by Repak. Early next year, Repak will also launch carbon calculators for schools and for businesses. The initial research for the project was carried out by Ms. Tricia Kenny, Director of Carbon Action Ireland. A Masters graduate of Environmental Science from Trinity College Dublin, Tricia carried developed the carbon footprint calculator for Ireland as part of her thesis.

Commenting on the launch of the carbon calculator, Andrew Hetherington, CEO of Repak said “This well researched tool helps people to actually realise the extent of their carbon footprint, and in particular compare this to the average Irish household. One of the best aspects of the calculator is that it gives each household suggestions and tips on practical ways in which they can reduce their carbon footprint and recycling is one way in which people can have a serious impact on carbon emissions and our overall environmental impact by lower our primary resource use.”

At the launch, Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government, John Gormley commented ”Repak’s carbon calculator is the latest example of the excellent work they do to promote recycling and the environment. Recycling creates lower energy costs, reduces emissions into the atmosphere and to water and reduces the amount of waste going to landfill sites. Each of us can further reduce our own carbon footprint by reducing the amount of packaging we consume and recycling as much as possible”.

At the launch of the Minister also announced the signing of Repaks new approval to 2011 and the launch of the amended Waste Management (Packaging) Regulations.

Mr Hetherington added “The new approval is an endorsement of Repaks success and the important role we have to play in meeting future EU targets. We can now plan for moving forward with certainty for next 4 years and also welcome the lowering of the threshold of obligation for companies to 10 tonnes (down from 25 tonnes of packaging placed on the market) that will widen the base of obligated companies meaning increased funding for Repak and recycling in Ireland. However our approval also poses challenges with the Minister seeking increased funding for packaging recycling for Local Authorities.”

Last year Repak managed to recycle 603,000 tonnes of packaging resulting in the equivalent of 463,000 tonnes of carbon savings. Since Repak was established in 1997 they have diverted over 3.5 million tonnes of used packaging from landfill resulting approximately 2.2 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent savings.

Pictured at the official launch are Mr. John Gormley TD, Minister for the Environment, Ms. Tricia Kenny, Director of Carbon Action Ireland and Dr. Andrew Hetherington, CEO, Repak

Repak Green Christmas 2007 Official Launch

2007-12-23T04:49:00.000-08:00

Don’t Let Packaging Snowball Out of Control this

Christmas

· 4 bottles of wine, 9 beer cans, 7 plastic drinks bottles
and nearly 1 roll of wrapping paper used EVERY SECOND by

consumers over Christmas period
· 82,000 tonnes of additional packaging will be generated over

Christmas period
· 23,000 tonnes of paper and cardboard the weight of 511

articulated trucks
· 44 million litres of alcohol, enough to fill Lough Neagh 12

times over
· Each household will generate circa 55 kilos of packaging waste · Repak set target to recycle 45% of the used packaging

With the Festive season in full swing, presents being bought and wrapped, everyone drinking and eating their fill, the packaging mountain is already beginning to build up. Repak would like to remind all consumers to prevent packaging from snowballing out of control this Christmas and be sure to use their local recycling facilities to recycle as much of their used packaging as possible. Irish Consumers go through an estimated; 4 bottles of wine, 9.6 beer cans, 5 soft drinks cans, 7.8 plastic drinks bottles and nearly 1 roll of wrapping paper PER SECOND over the festive period. In total over Green Christmas Irish consumers will use enough glass wine and beer bottles to create a chain 9,500 km in length, a chain long enough to stretch from Dublin to Tokyo. We will use 23,000 tonnes of cardboard and paper the same average weight as 511 fully loaded articulated trucks and we will drink enough alcohol to fill the great Lough Neagh 12 times over. In response to this festive indulging Repak is calling on all householders to maximise the use of their green bins and jingle all the way down to the recycling centres and bottle banks as they look towards an even Greener Repak Green Christmas in 2007.

This year Repak Green Christmas runs from the 23rd of December 2007 to the 4th of January 2008 so make sure your house is ready for the 12 Recycling days of Green Christmas. According to research undertaken by Repak, each household will generate circa 54 kilos or 80,000 tonnes of used packaging in total, over the Christmas period. There is a 30 per cent increase in the overall amount of used packaging at this time of year. It is estimated there are 164 million drink containers – including alcoholic and non-alcoholic cans and bottles going to be consumed this year due to the numerous Christmas parties and nights out over the festive season. Repak is aiming to collect and recycle 45% of this used packaging, generated over the holiday period. This is equivalent to 24 kilos per household or 35,000 tonnes in total of used packaging. Last year Repak supported the recycling of nearly 32,000 tonnes of used packaging, which was 10% up on the previous year. Repak Green Christmas is encouraging householders to think green and remember to recycle all the extra waste produced by these Christmas festivities.

Commenting on the extra effort required over the Christmas period, Andrew Hetherington, CEO of Repak said “What we have seen previously is that, with some encouragement, consumers react enthusiastically to the recycling call for a Repak Green Christmas. We are asking householders this year to examine their bin and to recycle items they have never recycled before, such as mince pie trays or used Christmas crackers, selection and chocolate boxes and biscuit tins. Consumers are the front line of recycling and their enthusiasm and participation is crucial in helping to reduce our Christmas waste mountain.”

Repak Green Christmas is supported in part by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government under the Race Against Waste campaign. Minister Minister John Gormley,T.D., thanked householders for their recycling efforts over the past year. “Recycling performance has gone through the roof in recent years and people in Ireland can be rightly proud of the part they are playing in helping the environment by using their green bins or bringing packaging waste to recycling centres”, the Minister remarked, “But I would ask everyone to make a New Year’s Resolution to use less packaging in 2008. I have recently asked supermarkets and other retailers to look at the amount of packaging on their products but we need to be aware that the choices we make as consumers can be an important element in preventing waste”.

The Repak Green Christmas campaign is in its seventh year and Repak now work with all local authorities around the country involving over 90 recycling centres nationwide. During December and January Repak will run a nationwide TV, national and local print, Outdoor shopper lights and radio advertising campaigns to support the call to recycle and also to encourage people to visit their recycling centres. They have also added Green Christmas information to their BEBO page and Blog where people can read more on various hints and tips around recycling at this time of the year. Most recycling centres have in many cases specific opening hours due to the holiday period and will accept a wider range of materials than the normal bring banks. In addition to this, the existing network of nearly 2,200 Bring Banks and kerbside collection systems reaching in excess of 950,000 households will help to facilitate the recycling of much of the Christmas packaging. Full details of Green Christmas recycling centres, their opening hours, local contractor collection information and Christmas tree recycling drop off points is available at http://www.repak.ie/.

Colouring Pencils at the ready.........

2007-12-12T02:45:00.000-08:00

Here is some good old fashioned festive fun the for little'uns, (and of course the child in all of us !!).

Click on the picture above and print off this fun picture of our Repak Recycling Elves.

Repak Green Christmas TV ad

2007-12-12T02:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we recorded our TV advert for Repak Green Christmas 2007. Now I know our TV advert is just like our Repak Recycling Week advert, but remember, to reuse is just as important as to recycle.

So happy viewing and don't tell the boss I gave you all a sneak preview.

Alma x

Repak Green Christmas 2007 - Get Ready

2007-12-06T08:42:00.000-08:00

The 12 Days of Greener Christmas

Day 1 Choose the right Christmas tree
Remember to buy real Christmas trees as they each remove 100,000 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide during their 9 years before maturing. For every tree chopped down another is planted. Noble Fir and Lodgepole Pine are said to be environmentally friendly as they will not shed their needles. Also treat a cut tree, like a cut flower – don’t over expose it to light and heat and top up with water daily.

Day 2 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.

Day 3 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.

Day 4 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.

Day 5 Find your nearest Repak Green Christmas 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 www.repak.ie or check yourlocal paper or for further details.

Day 6 Christmas wrapping.
Gather all the wrapping paper, cardboard boxes from presents into large bags for recycling or reuse. Also consider re-using brown paper and bits of fabric and ribbon to wrap presents and make them more individual and personal.

Day 7 Morning After The Party
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. If you’re looking for tips on how to improve your party, there’s a good chance you’ll meet a like minded reveler at the Bring Bank!

Day 8 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.

Day 9 Card Recycling
Collect all Christmas cards together, which can also be recycled. Almost 4 million Christmas cards were recycled last year. Consider sending e-cards too to save on paper usage.

Day 10 Recycle used batteries
Collect up all the used batteries. Consider giving a battery re-charger and rechargeable batteries for battery operated toys and gadgets. Look up www.repak.ie to find your nearest recycling centre that accept batteries.

Day 11 New Gadgets for Christmas?
There are estimated to be over a million mobile phones dormant in Ireland and instead of leaving it dormant, bring it your Green Christmas Recycling Centre as most of them accept old mobile phones. You could also try selling your unwanted gadget on www.ebay.ie or donating to charities looking for the products.

Day 12 Christmas Trees Recycling
Take down decorations and tree. Remember you can recycle it at your local Christmas tree recycling centre. Visit www.repak.ie for more details.

Repak Green Christmas 2007 - Poised for launch

2007-12-03T08:28:00.000-08:00

This Christmas Irish consumers all around the country will munch their way through an estimated 8.5 million mince pies, 1.4 million tins of biscuits and nearly 1 million selection boxes and will pull over 16 million Christmas crackers as they get into the festive spirit. Apart from expanding waistlines, this annual consumption fest leads to a New Year waste packaging mountain. In response Repak is calling on all retailers to encourage their customers to jingle all the way down to the recycling centres and bottle banks as they look towards an even Greener Repak Green Christmas in 2007.

Last year Repak recycled nearly 32,000 tonnes of used packaging, which was 10% up on the previous year. Repak Green Christmas is encouraging retailers to lead by example by putting recycling in front of their customers, get them to think green and remember to recycle all the extra waste produced by these Christmas festivities.

Commenting on the extra effort required over the Christmas period, Andrew Hetherington, CEO of Repak said “This time of the year is the perfect opportunity for retailers to get out there and show their Green credentials. We are asking retailers to lead the way in recycling this Christmas, by encouraging staff and customers internally to take on new recycling challenges over Christmas, to recycle items they have never recycled before, such as mince pie trays or used Christmas crackers.

This year Repak Green Christmas takes place between the 23rd December 2007 to 6th January 2008.

Full details of Green Christmas recycling centres, their opening hours and Christmas tree recycling drop off points will be available at http://www.repak.ie/.

Repak Green Christmas 2007

2007-11-14T02:28:00.001-08:00

It is truley hard to comprehend how Christmas is upon us again, (although if retailers had their way Christmas would start in July !). Repak Green Christmas 2007 is poised for launch on December 23rd 2007 .

If you need any reminding of what exactly goes on, log on to our 2006 Repak Green Christmas blog page to find out more.

Details for 2007 will follow shortly.....................................

RRW 2007 Days 6-7 - WEEE

2007-10-06T06:53:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-05T01:13:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-04T08:50:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-03T01:39:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-02T01:46:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-01T02:17:00.000-07:00

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".

Repak takes over the streets of Dublin

2007-09-28T02:15:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-17T04:03:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-10T02:30:00.000-07:00

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

Repak Recycling Week 2007 Details Launched

2007-08-28T02:27:00.000-07:00

This year’s theme for Repak Recycling week is “Keep Recycling – let’s get it sorted” and features a series of nationwide educational and promotional campaigns. The campaign will have a special twist this year with a dedicated day given to each material recycled here in Ireland to heighten the consumer’s awareness of the various methods of recycling and the various materials that can be recycled.

Monday will focus on paper and cardboard, Tuesday on glass, Wednesday on plastics, Thursday on aluminium and Friday on Wood. Saturday will see a special drive for WEEE recycling with extra recycling centres open nationwide to accept a range of electrical goods for recycling.

Repak Recycling Week aims to get as many people recycling the maximum amount of packaging during the week and help Ireland work towards achieving its future recycling targets while also reducing their carbon footprint through recycling.

Repak would like to encourage members, Local Authorities and Recovery Operators to take part in the week and take advantage of consumers heightened awareness of recycling during the week.
The Annual Repak Recycling Awards, now in its 6th year, will take place on Thursday 4th October.
Every year the awards recognise the efforts and ingenuity of its Members, Local Authorities and recovery operators in the area of packaging prevention, reuse and recycling. However, on its 10th Anniversary, Repak will be taking this opportunity to honour and congratulate the early members that have been contributing to Repak and recycling since 1997.

These companies were pioneers in taking seriously and willingly their responsibility to fund the recovery and recycling of their used packaging. Some of the early members to sign up to Repak in 1997 include prominent businesses such as, Gallaher (Dublin) Ltd, John Players & Sons, Irish Biscuits, Cadbury Schweppes, Heineken Ireland Ltd, Guinnesses, Dunnes Stores, C&C Ltd, PJ Carroll, Irish Distillers Group, GreenCore Group, and Castrol Ltd, , Johnson & Johnson and Allied Foods Ltd, some of whom have been previous recipients of Repak awards.

Andrew Hetherington, CEO Repak, said, “All Repak members should be very proud of what they have facilitated Ireland to achieve in terms of packaging recycling over the last ten years. Since 1997 Repak members have invested in excess of €118 million in supporting the recovery and recycling of nearly 3 million tonnes of used packaging. It has met and exceed both the 2001 and 2005 EU packaging recovery/recycling targets by helping to grow packaging recycling from under 15% in 1998 to over 60% in 2006.

“We are calling on all companies to show their pride in what they have helped to achieve over the ten years by participating actively in Repak Recycling Week and engaging with consumers to promote packaging recycling.”
Full details of the Repak Recycling Week events and promotions are available on http://www.repak.ie/ .

Ireland Recycles More Than Twice the Weight of its Population

2007-08-13T02:07:00.000-07:00

· Repak funded the recovery and recycling of c. 603,000

tonnes of waste packaging in 2006,
· That is 64% of all packaging placed on the market in 2006; a

c.7% increase on 2005.
· Since 1997 Repak have funded the recovery and recycling of

nearly 3 million tonnes of used packaging.
· Total Repak membership income exceeded €23.7m.
· Membership recruited 268 new members and generated an

additional €1.96m in fee income.
· Repak invested €22.6m in supporting packaging recycling

activity in 2006. This brings the total invested by Repak in

supporting packaging recycling to in excess of €117 million.
· Household plastic recycling increased to c. 19,700 tonnes; up from just less than 17,000 tonnes

in 2005.
· In 2006, Repak helped fund additional kerbside schemes reaching a further 58,000

households.
· The number of bring banks sites has increased by 866 over the last four years as a result of

the Joint DoE/Repak Bring Bank programme.
· 2,250 bring banks are now in place nationwide
· Repak funded kerbside dry recycling collections reaching in excess of 937,000 households in

2006; approximately 64% of all households in the State.

Repak’s 2006 results show a significant increase in packaging recycling from 565,000 tonnes in 2005 to 603,000 tonnes recycled in 2006. This equates to the average weight of 8.8 million people which is more than double the population of Ireland and has resulted in equivalent of 463,000 tonnes of carbon savings.
During the year household packaging recycling tonnages rose by 24% from 2005. While this is a significant increase it only represents just 29% of all recovered packaging but in fact accounts for 70% of the total Repak support funding. The results this year also show a 12% increase in glass recycling which reflects the increase in the use of Bring Banks.

In total for 2006:
- 111,283 tonnes of glass was recycled which equates to

approximately 214 million wine bottles or one giant glass

marble 100 metres in diameter
- 276,507 tonnes of paper and cardboard was recycled which

equates to 3.7 billion cereal boxes or the same as one giant box

37km high and 37 km wide able to hold 51million giant glass

marbles inside.

- 52,841 tonnes of plastic equivalent to 1.5 billion plastic drinks bottles, enough to create a line of bottles almost 45 times the

diameter of the earth
- 111,047 tonnes of wood was recycled enough wood to make 163 million hurling sticks
- 47,980 tonnes of steel, equivalent to the 1.25 billion food cans
- 3,567 tonnes of aluminium was recycled the equivalent of 214 million beverage cans
- In 2006, 83% of the waste packaging materials recovered and recycled were from glass,

cardboard/paper and wood. 17% of material was from plastic and metals.

Jason flies the flag at European Green Week

2007-06-18T01:58:00.000-07:00

Learning from past successes and failures to ensure that current and future environmental challenges are addressed effectively was the goal of this year's Green Week, which ran in Brussels in June. Run by the European Commission, the annual conference and exhibition event is totally dedicated to the environment and welcomed a range of speakers from politics, science and business.

As part of the week a small delegation of Youth Eco-Parliament (YEP) participated in the environmental policy discussions and presented their ideas and recommendations for stopping the planet's environmental deterioration. Representing 3600 young people from 14 countries YEP's proposals for action were outlined in their ‘7 Open Letters’ which were distributed to the 4000 environmental opinion leaders and decision-makers participating in the Green Week.

Ireland was chosen as one of the delegations to take part and Repak chose Jason O’Connor who had previously represented Ireland at the Pro Europe Conference in Paris last October where YEP initially distributed their Open Letters to a public forum.

Jason was also chosen to front the YEP delegation in Brussels and to make a speech at the event’s closing ceremony. As part of his speech Jason highlighted that where they may not know everything about the environment today’s youth sector had the educational opportunities not open to many and therefore feel sufficiently qualified to form an opinion. Their opinion was that there was too much talk and not enough action with regards to environmental concerns. They therefore recommended that more co-operation and communication is needed and that young people can also play a proactive and vital role in ensuring the sustainability of the environment, not just for their generation but for those generations to come.

On his return, Jason called in to the Repak offices for a special presentation by Repak CEO Dr. Andrew Hetherington and Chairman, Mr. Adrian Goodrich. They presented Jason with the eco friendly Imax self sufficient radio which can run off solar and wind up energy.

Speaking of his time in Brussels, Jason thanked Repak for affording him the opportunity to attend and that he was now looking forward to pursuing a career in science after his leaving cert next year.

Repak EPA Prevention Programme Update

2007-05-26T01:55:00.000-07:00

As part of its Packaging Prevention Programme, Repak has appointed consultants to examine the dyanamics behind product packaging decisions in terms of Who and Why?
The project which will identify and study a number of product supply chains with a view to identifying and understanding the packaging, and packaging design, decision-making process. The project will be carried out by Perchards, a consultancy firm with broad experience in packaging legislation.

The consultants will choose a number of common products, and work back through the supply chain and study the factors and dynamics of packaging decisions, including who makes decisions, for what reasons and in accordance with what requirements. It will further enquire if these decisions and design decisions could be changed and if there are barriers to such changes.
It is intended that the project will develop criteria for identifying suitable products for study based on criteria such as: amount of product sold, volume of packaging materials used in bringing product to point of sale, consumer perceptions of “over-packaging”, range of packaging options and choices, likely availability of good case study information, essential requirements, and best in class criteria.

It is anticipated that the project will be completed towards end 2007.

The full results of the study will be available from Repak.

Repak Service Providers Conference 2007

2007-04-25T01:38:00.000-07:00

-Additional Funding Needed to Meet Future EU Packaging recycling Targets
-Investment in packaging recycling to rise to €45 million per year by 2011
-€117 million invested in packaging recycling by Repak since 1997
-Repak has funded the recycling of nearly 3 million tonnes of used packaging since 1997
-Repak agree 5 year Strategic Partnership with Government and stakeholders
-Changes to the packaging regulations to obligate more companies

The 2007 RPS Service Providers Conference was held in the Mullingar Park Hotel on the 25th April.
There are currently 153 Service Providers (Local Authorities and Commercial Waste Recycling Company’s) nationwide that are contracted by Repak for the recovery and recycling of packaging waste.
The general theme of the conference was “Sustainable Recycling”. Representatives from both Local Authority and Commercial Recovery Operators were in attendance.
Speakers on the day were Fred McDarby, Enterprise Ireland, Louis Duffy, Environment Dept, Cork County Council and Kathleen O’Donohue-Ryan, Best Practice Manager, Repak. The key note address was given by Minister of State for the Environment, Mr. Batt O’Keefe.
Attendees to the conference were informed that €180 million needs to be invested by Irish industry in packaging recycling over the next 5 years in order for Ireland to meet its next EU packaging recovery targets. By 2011 the annual funding of packaging recycling by Repak is forecast to rise to €45 million.
The new figures reflect a 50% increase in the funding for the next 5 years versus the amount invested over the last 10 years, as more recycled packaging is sourced from household bins throughout the country.
The figures were revealed against the backdrop of €117 million that Repak has invested in funding packaging recycling in Ireland to date, in meeting its member’s producer responsibility obligations to fund the recycling of their used packaging. Through this investment, packaging recycling has grown from under 15% in 1998 to over 60% in 2006. In total Repak has recorded the funding of nearly 3 million tonnes of used packaging since its establishment in 1997, which would otherwise have gone to landfill.

Fred McDarby presented on the plans for the €13 million government funded Market Development Programme. The delegates also heard details of the joint Repak/EPA Packaging Prevention programme that aims to reduce the volume of packaging being generated in the first place.

Future changes to the packaging regulations will see thousands of extra companies becoming obligated under the Waste Management Regulations (Packaging) was outlined by the minister for State Batt O’Keefe. Enforcement of this legislation is seen as key to ensuring that Ireland can continue to meet the steep costs of future packaging recycling targets.

As Repak celebrates its 10 year anniversary it outlined that central to ensuring that future funds were available to meet growing recycling targets meant not only large increases to existing members but more importantly bringing more companies into the producer responsibility net. Large companies who were currently ignoring the legislative obligation under producer responsibility also need to be identified and forced to comply.

Tidy Towns 2007 Launched

2007-04-24T01:43:00.000-07:00

The Tidy Towns competition is a well known and well loved national competition organised by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The competition involves participating towns being rated on all aspects of their local environment including litter control.

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.

Speaking at the official launch on April 24th, Minister of State, Mr. Batt O'Keeffe TD, said "Last year a number of changes were introduced to strengthen Tidy Towns as it heads towards its fiftieth anniversary in 2008. This led to an unprecedented level of interest from communities all around Ireland and we hope that many of those who contacted the Department for information will go on to develop their ideas, form committees and take part this year”.

“2007 sees this programme of change continuing, with a particular emphasis on how to involve more communities and how to provide greater supports to existing participants”, he continued.

As the second biggest sponsor after Supervalu, Repak receive significant recognition of their sponsorship from the DoEHLG, LA’s, and the large dedicated teams of volunteers involved in the competition annually; as well as national media coverage, and accordingly have an effective opportunity to liaise with community leaders around the country and inform them of our activities and ambitions.

Repak Launch Easter Campaign 2007

2007-04-06T01:21:00.000-07:00

Ø A tower of the 6 million Easter Eggs boxes consumed this year would
stretch to over 900km reaching all the way to Paris from Dublin
Ø Irish households to eat almost 1 million kilograms of chocolate over
the Easter period.
Ø 490,000 kilos of Easter Eggs used packaging will be generated.
Ø Repak Campaign calls for Irish public to recycle used Easter egg
packaging including the PET plastic moulded egg inserts
Ø Repak Recycling Hints and Tips for Easter 2007 revealed.
Ø 1 million bottles of wine will be consumed over the Easter period.

Irish chocoholics will this year consume enough Easter Eggs to create a monster egg over 5 times the height of the new U2 Tower in the Docklands at 614 meters high and 425 meters wide according to research by Repak, the packaging recycling scheme. A trail of the 6 million Easter Eggs boxes consumed this year would stretch to over 900km reaching all the way to Paris from Dublin and contain enough chocolate to fill 6 Olympic sized swimming pools. The facts were released as part of this years’ Repak Easter Campaign, which is urging householders to getting cracking and make an egg-stra effort to recycle the 490,000 kilos of cardboard, plastic and aluminium packaging from Easter egg boxes.

With over quarter of Irish people claiming they will have a few alcoholic drinks on Good Friday it is estimated that the resultant Easter festivities will generate over 15 million beverage cans and 1 million bottles of wine. Repak is urging all households to use their household collections, Recycling Centers and BringBanks to recycle all of this used packaging rather than sending it to landfill.

National Spring Clean 2007

2007-04-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

An Taisce’s National Spring Clean campaign 2007 has now come to its conclusion and initial estimates from An Taisce point to it being the largest to date. The campaign was launched in Bray on April 2nd by Dick Roche TD, former Minister for the Environment and received tremendous coverage in the national press and TV media.

Since then over 4,000 events have taken place throughout the country, with over 398,000 volunteers giving up there own time to help reduce litter in Ireland. This number is up from 3,594 events and 341,000 participants in 2006

It is Repak’s fourth year to get on board and to encourage that all recyclables collected would be recycled in the various available amenities. To ensure this Repak again sponsored the colour coded refuse sacks used for collecting recyclable materials which An Taisce sends to all registered groups. Last year (2006), an estimated 3,340 tonnes of litter was collected of which 35% was recycled. National Spring Clean Manager, Emlyn Cullen expressed his thanks to all the campaigns sponsors, “It is only with their generous on-going support that the Spring Clean continues to grow year on year”, he said.

A major boost to the campaign this year came with the launch of a new website: http://www.nationalspringclean.org/. For the first time participants could now register their events online. The website has been very successful with 10% of all registrations coming through the site.

Congratulation to all those who gave up there time to take part and make this the most successful Spring Clean ever!

Repak Oireachtas Evening

2007-03-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-07T01:12:00.000-08:00

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.

Repak Awarded Vodafone Passion for the World by South Dublin Chamber

2007-02-01T01:34:00.000-08:00

At a special presentation ceremony on Thursday 1st February, Vodafone and South Dublin Chamber announced Repak as the first business recipient of a Vodafone Passion for the World Around Us Award.

The Passion for the World Around Us Awards are run by Vodafone in partnership with South Dublin Chamber and 17 other Chambers nationwide. The awards recognise and reward people and businesses who make an effort to improve their local communities and who have been successful in making a positive contribution to the world around them. Repak received a certificate and a specially commissioned, handmade award designed by Irish artist Michele Hannan at a special presentation in Repak Headquarters on 1st February 2007.

Repak was awarded for what was recognised as ‘an outstanding achievement in creating a powerful brand for recycling, and positive change’. Repak’s focus on environmental protection and recycling as well as highly effective awareness campaigns including those specifically targeted at school children were all cited as reasons for their achievement.

Brenda Hunt, Vodafone Corporate Responsibility Executive said, Repak’s admirable commitment to their work is an example for the rest of us to follow and the company has undoubtedly made a positive impact in South Dublin”.

‘Repak are delighted to receive this award’ announced Repak CEO, Mr. Andrew Hetherington. ‘Particularly in this, our tenth year of operation and especially on the recent confirmation from the EPA that Repak have helped Ireland achieve and well exceed its 2005 EU packaging recovery and recycling target of 50%.’ ‘Repak have invested over €100 million of our member’s money in supporting Local Authorities and private collectors to achieve a packaging recycling rate of over 60%.’ ‘This Vodafone passion award acknowledges the role Repak subsidies and educational programs have played in changing our national recycling behaviour.’

Also Congratulating Repak at the presentation, Mary Grassick of South Dublin Chamber said “We are delighted to be involved with the Vodafone Passion for the World Around Us Awards as they enable us to acknowledge people and businesses such as Repak who make our community a more pleasant place to live.

End of Life Vehicles (ELV) Regulations come into force

2007-01-29T08:05:00.000-08:00

Since January 2007, the Irish Department for the environment has implemented it's reguations pertaining to the eco friendly disposal of motor cars and vans.

The Regulations place heavy obligations on manufacturers and importers of cars and vans ("producers" under the Regulations), who are required to put in place a national system for the collection and disposal of end-of-life vehicles (ELVs). An ELV is a car or van which is discarded or is to be discarded by its registered owner.

The registered owners of the ELV may not be charged where the ELV is deposited at the authorised treatment facility, (ATF) unless essential components of the vehicle are missing. Where the ELV has no or a negative market value, the producer is responsible for meeting the costs of treatment and recovery of the ELV. When an ELV is deposited at an ATF, a Certificate of Destruction will be issued to the registered owner. The ELVs must be treated within 10 days of deposit at the facility.

For a list of ATF facilities in your area contact the environmental department in your local authority, or log on to Repak.ie for an up to date list.

Recycling: Lets Get Started !!

2007-01-08T01:45:00.000-08:00

Recycling is the act of processing used or abandoned materials for use in creating new products.

This can involve using recyclable materials to make a new version of the same thing (e.g. using used glass bottles to produce new glass bottles) or using them to make something entirely different (e.g. using beverage cartons to make recyclable paper bags).
Over 2/3 of the average household bin is recyclable. Approximately a quarter of the bin is used packaging that can be recycled, with a further third being compostable kitchen and garden waste. There is a clear opportunity for Irish householders to make a difference here and contribute towards achieving Ireland’s EU packaging recovery and recycling targets.

1 - First of all, if your home is serviced by a kerbside collection for recycling make sure you are fully aware of all the different packaging types and recyclables that they will collect. Contact your local authority or local waste contractor to get an update on what they accept as they often collect a wider range of recyclable materials than you may be aware of.

2 - If you do not have a kerbside collection for recycling, make optimum use of your local recycling facilities. To find out where your local bring bank/recycling centre site is, please click here.

3 - To start recycling simply begin by segregating your household waste into three types:
a. Recycling
b. Compostables
c. Residual waste

4 - Get different containers for each of the above and label each one clearly. Clear a handy but obvious place for them where all members of the household will see and use them e.g. corner of the kitchen, utility room, garage etc.

5 - You may find it easier to have separate containers for all of your different recycling materials e.g. glass, aluminum cans etc. Alternatively to save space, collect your recyclables in one container and separate them at your local bring bank/recycling centre.

6 - Make sure the containers you use are easy to clean out.

7 - It is also important to choose a container size which is easy for you to carry when full and transport to your local bring bank/recycling centre.

8 - The following chart will help you handle your recycling at home:

PACKAGING TYPE & INSTRUCTIONS

Glass bottles and jars Rinse and remove lids
Aluminium drinks cans Wash and squash
Steel food cans Rinse
Cardboard packaging Flatten it, keep it clean and dry
Beverage cartons Wash and squash
Plastic bottles Wash and squash and remove lids

9 - By following these instructions on handling your recycling you will get the maximum use out of your recycling wheelie bin and/or containers.

10 - Flattening or squashing your used packaging means you will be able to fit more into your recycling containers at home. This also benefits your local recycling facility in the same way.

11 - Rinsing recyclables will eliminate any smell or insect problems and the mess of spilled contents in your recycling containers. It also prevents the contamination of other used packaging like cardboard which if wet cannot be successfully recycled.

12 - To find out where your local bring bank/civic amenity site is, please click here.

Focus on Paper/Cardboard

2007-01-08T01:33:00.000-08:00

In Ireland, as part of the Department of the Environment's strategy to reduce waste going to landfill, a ban on commercial quantities of cardboard was implemented on 1st February 2002. Cardboard containers are not only one of the most commonly found materials in both industrial and commercial waste, but they are also one of the easiest materials to recycle. Cardboard recycling cuts emissions of sulpher dioxide in half and saves about one quarter of the energy used to manufacture it. Source: http://www.rehab.ie/gandon/paper.aspx

REDUCE AND REUSE PAPER
Reducing the amount of paper you use is the best means of reducing consumption. One way of doing this is by sharing newspapers at work. Reusing paper is another good means of reducing consumption. Offices can make a major contribution through economical use of paper, by, for example, using paper on both-sides and reverse sides of old reports for rough work. Envelopes, if opened carefully, can be reused using fresh labels. Old newspapers can be pulped at home and, using purpose-built simple presses, converted into fuel for the fire. Old newspapers are also useful in the garden for controlling weeds, for the compost heap and may also be suitable as animal bedding. Waste but good quality paper can be used as scribbling pads or wrapping paper. If there is a downturn in the market for newspapers, alternative uses on the lines of the above may be the only viable alternative means of recycling.

RECYCLING OF PAPER
The following classes of paper are suitable for recycling:
Newspapers are classed as low grade paper, but are the easiest to recycle, however the market for recycling newspapers fluctuates greatly and consequently the number of places which accept newspapers varies from time to time. Therefore, in Ireland, it is necessary to check frequently with your local authority or ENFO about current places which will accept paper.
Magazines are a low grade material. They should be kept separate from newspapers.
Computer printout is a high grade material.
Corrugated cardboard is also suitable for recycling but it is a low grade material and again the market fluctuates greatly.
Office waste can be a medium quality if free from contamination such as plastics, metals, etc. Offices could, without too much difficulty, make significant contributions to recycling paper with the cooperation of staff.
Other wastes are telephone books, cardboard packets, greeting cards, calendars and diaries, paper bags, comics, bills, cigarette packets etc. Generally speaking, paper of similar type should be tied in bundles and contamination, such as plastics and tin foil, removed. Books should be kept separate. Cardboard should be flattened and tied in bundles.

USE MORE RECYCLED PAPER PRODUCTS
Market forces dictate the price which is paid for recycled paper. You can support the market in this area by using more recycled products, e.g. office stationery and cardboard packaging. With modern technology, a good standard of stationery using recycled paper is possible. Manufacturers and others could further promote the use of recycled products by stating that their products are made of recycled materials. For example, cardboard packaging could state the percentage of recycled board used in its manufacture. Offices could print at the foot of their letters the fact that recycled paper is being used. Envelopes made from recycled paper are also available and could indicate the percentage of recycled paper used in their manufacture. Source: ENFO

Focus on Steel

2007-01-08T01:10:00.000-08:00

Metal is an easy to recycle material and quite valuable. Just remember to clean all cans out properly and to remove any plastic.

We rely on steel cans for packaging our food in durable, tamper-resistant, shelf-stable containers. We reach for them on cold winter evenings when we need a cup of soup. We empty their contents into dog and cat food dishes for our pets. We even polish our furniture and paint our homes with their contents.
You may not realize it, but you probably use at least one steel can every day. The familiar "tin" can has been part of our society for more than a century. Steel cans package a variety of products, including fruits, vegetables, soups, sauces, meats, condiments, juice, pet food, cleaning products, paint, shoe polish, adhesive bandages, coffee and even cookies. Steel cans are also something else -- recyclable.
And they have the potential to be recycled over and over again into new steel products.

Source: http://www.recycle-steel.org/cans.html

Steel is probably the easiest material to separate from the rest of the solid waste stream. Steel is attracted to magnets, so special magnetic belts can be used to separate steel cans from other recyclables. This is a much more efficient method than the labor-intensive hand-sorting necessary with other recyclables, such as plastics.
Recycling your used steel cans at home is easy, too. All you need to do is rinse the food from the cans. That’s it. Years ago, scrap dealers asked people to remove the paper labels and the tops and bottoms from cans. This is no longer necessary.
If you’re not sure which cans are steel and which are aluminum, use a magnet to separate them. Steel will stick to the magnet; aluminum will not. If you come across a can with a steel body and an aluminum top—called a bimetal can—put the can with the steel recyclables. Steel recyclers can accept all types of steel cans, even those containing aluminum. Aluminum recyclers can only accept 100 percent aluminum cans.
After steel scrap is collected from homes, recycling centers, or waste-to-energy plants, it is shipped to one of the companies that buy old steel—steel mills, iron and steel foundries, scrap dealers, and detinners. Detinners remove the layer of tin from old steel cans. This tin is valuable and can be sold.
Steel can recycling follows almost the same process as aluminum can recycling. Steel cans, along with other steel scrap, are melted in a furnace and then poured into casters that continuously roll and flatten the steel into sheets. Recycled steel cans can be made into new cars, girders for buildings, or new food cans.
Like aluminum, steel can also be recycled again and again. It does not lose any of its strength or quality in the recycling process. It can be a never-ending process that continues to save energy and resources. Source: http://www.eia.doe.gov/

Focus On Plastic

2007-01-04T04:35:00.000-08:00

With all plastic bottles, (beverages, water etc),
we should rinse and then crush them to maximise space in collection systems. It is best to replace the cap as this helps keep bottles crushed and prevents air entry and bottle reshaping.
Generally plastic is marked with a triangle and a number 1 - 7 to help identify the different types. Most Commonly accepted are numbers 1 and 2 which are PET and HDPE.
However, in Ireland, many plastic collection systems do collect plastic wrap from breads, toilet rolls etc and some trays. If in doubt about your collection leave it out. Ideally confirm with your collector what they accept as different Local Authorities and recovery operators collect different things.

A recycling plant uses seven steps to turn plastic trash into recycled plastic:

1. Inspection
Workers inspect the plastic trash for contaminants like rock and glass, and for plastics that the plant cannot recycle.

2. Chopping and Washing
The plastic is washed and chopped into flakes.

3. Flotation Tank
If mixed plastics are being recycled, they are sorted in a flotation tank, where some types of plastic sink and others float.

4. Drying
The plastic flakes are dried in a tumble dryer.

5. Melting
The dried flakes are fed into an extruder, where heat and pressure melt the plastic. Different types of plastics melt at different temperatures.

6. Filtering
The molten plastic is forced through a fine screen to remove any contaminants that slipped through the washing process. The molten plastic is then formed into strands.

7. Pelletizing
The strands are cooled in water, then chopped into uniform pellets. Manufacturing companies buy the plastic pellets from recyclers to make new products. Recycled plastics also can be made into flowerpots, lumber, and carpeting. Source: www.eia.doe.gov

Focus on Aluminium

2007-01-04T04:18:00.000-08:00

Aluminium is a valuable material. As most people are aware the most noted source of aluminium in the market place is with drink cans, all of which can go into the green bin.
In Ireland, we are recycling approximately 40% of cans but we can also recycle Aluminium Foils such as Take away trays, Aluminium foil and trays from items like mini tarts and cakes. Just rinse clean and scrunch together. Cans take up a lot of space if they are not compressed so make sure you squash them.

All aluminium products can be recycled after use. Scrap is generally taken by road to the recycling plant where it is checked and sorted to determine composition and value. If the scrap is of unknown quality the aluminium will first be passed through some large magnets to remove any ferrous metal. Depending upon the type of contamination present, some scrap must be processed further, beverage cans for example must have their lacquer removed prior to re-melting.
The scrap aluminium is then loaded into a furnace, which melts the aluminium completely. This molten metal is then cast or processed. Anything made of aluminium can be recycled repeatedly.

Source: www.world-aluminium.org

Focus on Glass Recycling

2007-01-04T04:00:00.000-08:00

First and foremost, we, the Irish nation, are very good at recycling our glass bottles and jars. We now have glass recycling rates of nearly 80%. Yet we are not so good at other materials. Very few Irish household collection systems will collect glass so you need to separate into the different types/colours and bring to your local bring center. We have a complete list of the 2,500 bring banks, bring centers and larger civic amenity sites through out Ireland on www.repak.ie.

Glass containers deposited from households into the bottle bank network are transported for recycling to the glass processing plant. For example with Rehab, their Recycle plant is based in Dublin, at Ballymount.

The Ballymount plant uses state-of-the-art technology to sort the glass by colour, remove all metal contaminants and crush it into small pieces known as cullet.
When a consignment of glass arrives at Ballymount, it undergoes an initial process of manual sorting to ensure that bottles and jars are divided by colour - green, brown and clear.
Metal objects such as cans, and bottle lids are then removed magnetically, before the glass is crushed into cullet.
The cullet then goes through a screening system so it can be sorted by size. Optical sorters fire lasers through the particles to ensure that they are glass. The machines remove other objects such as fragments of cups or plates.
This is a vital process - just one broken tea cup will result in a 25 tonne consignment of cullet being rejected.
Finally the glass is put through a suction system which removes lighter components such as labels and plastic lids.
The cullet is then ready to go to Quinn Glass, in Northern Ireland,where it is put in furnaces along with other raw materials such as soda ash and silica sand to produce new glass.
For every tonne of cullet added to the furnace, there are savings of the energy equivalent of 30 gallons of oil. Source: www.rehab.ie