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

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