Repak calls on householders to break

Recycling Week record

Repak is calling on householders to break the Repak Recycling Week record by helping to recycle over 15,000 tonnes of used packaging in the weeks surrounding this year’s campaign, which takes place from the 2nd October to the 8th October.

All that is necessary to reach this record is for each household to recycle 28 plastic bottles, 5 glass wine bottles, 5 beverage cartons, 6 kg of cardboard, 9 aluminium drinks cans and 20 food cans over the month of October.

As an added incentive to recycle during this year’s 6th annual Repak Recycling Week, Repak is also offering recyclers an opportunity to win an environmentally friendly Ford Focus FFV (FlexiFuel) car - plus a year’s supply of Maxol’s Bio-Ethanol Fuel, by simply visiting a local Recycling Centre and texting in. This year’s competition is designed to encourage people to visit one of the 91 Recycling Centres located throughout the country, where over 90,000 reusable recycling bags will be given away to the first 1,000 recyclers at each Centre.

By texting the “Repak password” displayed on the bring banks to the low text number 51567, recyclers will be in with a chance to win Ireland’s first bio-ethanol car. Daily participants will be selected to go onto the Marty in the Morning Show on 2FM (weekdays - 7.00 a.m. to 9.00a.m.), where they will have to answer various recycling questions.

Each day there is the opportunity to win Maxol fuel vouchers up to the value of €250 - with the overall winner of the Ford Focus FFV being selected on Friday the 8th.

Andrew Hetherington, CEO Repak, said - “It has taken time for Ireland to become a more environmentally conscious country and recently we have seen householders make great efforts to recycle. In many areas around the country - with the introduction of pay-by-weight / pay-by-use - people not only have an environmental - but also a financial - incentive to recycle more. Last year, Repak helped Ireland achieve and exceed its EU 2005 packaging recycling target by 14% and that is why we are confident that everyone will club together and break this year's Recycling Week record during and in the weeks surrounding the campaign.”

Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Mr Dick Roche, T.D., said - "Recycling rates are on the increase and we have made serious gains in recent years. Projects such as Repak Recycling Week are important, as they encourage people to further improve the level of waste that is recycled. I would like to applaud Andrew and his team for the superb calendar of recycling activities which they have organised for the week."

The 2005 Repak Recycling Week campaign helped to contribute to growing household packaging recycling rates by 59%. Household recycling rates, however, lag behind commercial packaging recycling rates - with total volume collected only a quarter of what is collected from businesses. This year’s theme is “Keep Recycling – let’s get it sorted” and Repak is calling on all householders to contribute in helping Ireland recycle nearly 15,000 tonnes over the month of October.

It is estimated that we would need to proportionately recycle the equivalent of the following - all of which can be recycled at the 90 recycling centres -

• 36 million plastic milk and drinks bottles or equivalent volume of P.E.T. (the equivalent of 1,800 tonnes of plastic in total)
• 6.9 million wine bottles (the equivalent of 3,500 tonnes of glass)
• 6.8 million beverage cartons (200 tonnes of beverage cartons / Tetra Pak)
• 7,800 tonnes of cardboard or the equivalent of 102.6 million cereal boxes
• 12 million aluminium drinks cans (200 tonnes of aluminium)
• 26.2 million food cans (1,500 tonnes of steel).

It means also that, to break the record, each household across the country only needs to recycle the equivalent of (approximately) -

• 28 plastic bottles
• 5 glass wine bottles
• 5 beverage cartons
• 6 kg of cardboard or equivalent of 79 cereal boxes
• 9 aluminium drinks cans
• 20 food cans.

"We are delighted to be associated with Repak Recycling Week and we believe our Focus FFV - which runs on any mix of petrol or bio-ethanol - is an ideal car for the initiative” - said Eddie Murphy, MD of Ford in Ireland. Noël McMullan, Director of Maxol said - “Maxol is a great supporter of Recycling Week and our bio-ethanol is a great example of recycling at work. Our E85 bio-ethanol is made from whey - a by-product of cheese-making - by Carbery in Co. Cork. The whey is recycled and turned into a very valuable product that will help lessen our dependence on fossil fuels.”

As part of the Repak recycling week activity, Repak has produced and circulated an activity pack to teachers for all 3,491 national schools, to coincide with the week. Each day a series of activities has been devised, which can be carried out at home and in school - and it is recommended that the teacher either photocopies each pack or downloads them directly - Click Here

Activities include the ‘Repak Recycling House Hunt Card’ - where the children are asked to identify various items at home and label them as recyclable items. Included in the pack are ‘Recycle Me’ stickers that can be handed out by each teacher to encourage practical home and class-based recycling activity. Finally, there is also a competition to win bicycles.

The campaign will include National TV, radio and newsprint advertising - as well as shopper light advertising and trade press advertising. Repak members and stakeholders are also getting involved in activities throughout the country. Waste contractors are working with Repak to promote the week regionally, through competitions on the following radio stations, including -

	AES and Midlands 103 and Kildare FM
	Mr. Binman and Limerick 95 Live FM
	Greenstar and Ocean FM and East Coast Radio
	Oxigen and 98FM.

As part of the Week, the 5th Repak Recycling Awards will take place on the Wednesday 6th October at the Four Seasons Hotel, Dublin. The awards recognise the efforts and ingenuity of the 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.

To help consumers get into the recycling habit, Repak will be listing full details of participating local authority recycling centres and contractors on the Repak website - Click Here
This information will also be available through the LoCall number 1 850 909999 - operated between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday. In addition, during Repak Recycling Week, TechRec Ireland - currently the only WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) processor in Ireland - is having a public service open day on Saturday 7th of October 2006 from 10:00am-4:00pm. Techrec is encouraging householders to bring along their old electrical goods and see how one of the most modern WEEE processing plants in Europe, converts old electrical equipment into reusable raw materials. For more information - Click Here

Ford Focus FFV & Maxol Bio-Ethanol
The Focus FFV boasts up to 70% fewer CO2 emissions than an equivalent petrol car. This biofuel car is capable of running on either E85 bio-ethanol - which is a blend of 85% bio-ethanol and 15% petrol - regular petrol, or any mixture of both. Importantly, this allows the car to run even in areas where bio-ethanol outlets have not yet been established.

The Maxol Stations where you can get bio-ethanol include -

• Maxol Service Station, Lower Glanmire Road, Tivoli, Cork, Co. Cork.
• Maxol Service Station, Richmond Road, Dublin 3.
• Maxol Service Station, Beach Road, Sandymount, Dublin 4.
• Maxol Service Station, Cromwellsfort Road, Crumlin, Dublin 12.
• Maxol Service Station, Ballymakenny Road, Drogheda, Co. Louth.
• Maxol Service Station, Kingsmeadow, Cork Road, Waterford, Co. Waterford.
• Maxol Service Station, Dooradoyle, Limerick
• Maxol Service Station, Flowerhill, Navan, Co. Meath.

Repak Recycling Week Tips

• Organise Household Bins
  Put three bins in the kitchen - one for recyclables, one for compostable vegetable waste and 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 have the 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. For example, did you know that the steel in baked bean cans now weighs 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 www.repak.ie or check your local paper 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.
• Use Re-usable Bags
  Make sure to use reusable bags when visiting your Recycling Centre or Bring Bank - especially if you’ve wash ‘n’ squashed your used packaging container. Often, people use cardboard boxes, which can get soggy and unusable. Without realising, unfortunately, some people leave these beside Bring Banks and at Recycling Centres – this is littering and makes everyone’s job harder.
• 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 www.repak.ie to find your nearest recycling centre that accept batteries.

Packaging Recycling – an example of a few items to help us break the record

• 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 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 rinsed Ensuring limited product waste and maximum recyclability.