National Spring Clean Results

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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Repak Launch Podcast

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

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Picture: Artist robert Bradford with CEO of Repak Andrew Hetherington

Interview with Robert Bradford

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.

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Try out our Recycling Game

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

· 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

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

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

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.