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Repak Recycling Awards 2008 The Repak Recycling Awards recognise the efforts and ingenuity of the Repak Industry Members, Local Authorities and Collectors in the area of packaging prevention, reuse and recycling.
Glenisk Organic Dairy has been awarded the Repak Best Practice Award for outstanding achievements in the reduction of Packaging Waste. Glenisk was one of eleven winners which were presented with their awards by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, John Gormley TD, in recognition of their environmental best practices at the 7th Annual Repak Recycling Awards ceremony in the Four Seasons Hotel in Dublin.
Commenting, Dr Andrew Hetherington, CEO Repak said - “We are delighted to see the range and quality of initiatives undertaken by Irish business and schools increase this year. Over the last number of years we have implemented a number of programmes to help increase recycling rates and also to improve packaging prevention measures, which have resulted in financial and environmental gains for these companies. "In order for Ireland to meet its ever increasing recycling rates, we need to be innovative in all areas of packaging development, usage, design, manufacture, reduction and recycling.” The awards were sponsored by RPS Consulting, Manvik, Tetra Pak, Rehab Recycling, the Environmental Protection Agency and Arthur Cox Solicitors. Other winners on the night included Glenlo Abbey for their innovative ‘Packaging Free Breakfast’ and Wicklow County Council for their installation of a charity shop on the site of their Civic Amenity Centre to allow for the re-use of discarded household items that arrive at the centre. Additional award winners included technology companies Symantec and Microsoft. Symantec increased their recycling rate up to 80% and increased their online product sales to over 3 million products, resulting in the prevention of 345.6 metric tonnes of paper, plastic and cardboard packaging. Microsoft redesigned their Mac Office packaging in 2007 which reduced the packaging weight by 70%, leading to a reduction of 210 tonnes of packaging, which resulted in a 30% reduction in number of trucks needed to deliver the same product. The awards judges included - Hugh Stevens of Enterprise Ireland, Andy Fanning of the EPA, Alan Sherlock of the SFA, Roger Gillespie of KPMG, Danielle Conaghan of Arthur Cox and journalist Fearghal O’Connor.
Awards Winners
Symantec Ireland is the Irish operation of this major US multinational - a global leader in the field of IT security - and employs over 1,000 people at its state-of-the-art facility in Blanchardstown, outside Dublin.
In 2007, Symantec continued to expand their online download service, where customers could purchase antivirus software without any accompanying packaging. Over 3 million products were bought online in 2007. This resulted in the prevention of 345.6 metric tones of paper, plastic and cardboard packaging. The estimate of financial savings for this product is many millions of Euro in 2007. Recent projects have including moving from a carton style pack to a much smaller DVD style pack and reducing the size and amount of cardboard in the remaining cartons. Other Finalists in this Category included -
The Glenlo Abbey Hotel is a luxury, family-run boutique hotel in Bushypark, Co.Galway.
They have introduced a range of impressive waste prevention initiatives, including introducing the 'Packaging Free Breakfast' which has eradicated the need for butter and jam packaging, receiving food deliveries in bulk and providing clearly marked recycle bins in guest rooms. The hotel constantly strives to achieve the very highest standards in recycling and have been steadily increasing their recycling rate over the past number of years. The Glenlo Abbey Hotel has an absolute commitment to very highest standards waste management - a policy that it pursues with vigour and great enthusiasm. Other Finalists in this Category included -
Glenisk have been producing organic yogurt and milk in Offaly for more than twelve years.
They are also, where possible, replacing PS packaging with PET packaging - the latter being more readily recycled in Ireland than PS. Other Finalists in this Category included -
Other Finalists in this Category included -
The Repak Excellence Award recognises and honours Irish companies which have demonstrated outstanding achievements in the environmental field.
Thornton's Recycling was founded in 1979 by the late Padraig Thornton and has waste collection services in Dublin, Meath and Kildare in the domestic, public and private sectors.
A rigorous procedure is in place for the exporting of all dry recyclables which complies with the Trans Frontier Shipment Directive and all relevant legislation and which also includes quality checks and photographing of materials before leaving the site. Thorntons Recycling ensures that there is full 'cradle to the grave' reporting and accountability in place at all times for the export of all dry recyclable materials. The company operates to high international standards for Quality and Health & Safety - together with environment management - and has recently been accredited with ISO standards 9000, 1400 and 18001. Other Finalists in this Category included -
Clean Ireland Recycling is a recovery operator based in the Mid-West in Creegh, Kilrush, Co. Clare.
The company also services bring sites in the Limerick City and County areas - collecting steel cans and collecting plastic bottles. Other Finalists in this Category included -
The Bray Recycling Centre is located in an industrial zoned estate. The Center is housed completely indoors having taken over the use of the building from the previous owners/tenants - a chemical company that ceased trading. It is the fifth link in a chain of recycling facilities managed by Wicklow County Council. The total catchment area is circa 50,000. The site experiences up to 3,000 vehicles per week using the site. The popularity of the site is due to the range of material accepted, including difficult material such as Expanded Polystyrene (EPS). The facility is very innovative in that all waste is collected entirely indoors within a 20,000 square foot area of industrial space. The design of the centre, with its spacious layout, together with the assistance of trolleys to move large items from householder's vehicles, has been very successful.
The centre uses a large semi-automatic baler that produces mill size bales, adding value to recyclables and reducing the need for storage space. Another feature of the centre is the location of an on-site charity shop - 'The Five Loaves' - which generates revenue through promoting reuse of household items - e.g. clothing, etc. The funds raised are put back into local social needs programmes - e.g. homeless, etc. The centre also incorporates a resource centre for school teachers, as well as a conference centre and workshop venue. There are many other initiatives insitu - such as a second-hand schoolbook shop, a book and video exchange and a compost display area. Other Finalists in this Category included -
Fingal County Council's administrative area encompasses 88,000 households and services a local population of 240,000 approx.
This service has now been expanded to include a third bin - compost. Enforcement of the waste packaging regulations is good. New 'Major Producer' companies within the council area - once informed of their obligations by the enforcement unit of the council - demonstrate compliance by joining Repak or self-complying without the need to resort to prosecutions. Awareness, education and marketing programmes undertaken by the Council are exemplary. The council partners with Repak in joint campaigns as well as undertaking specific campaigns such as Fingal Beach Clean Up, Anti-litter campaigns and an active participation in the Green Schools programme. Other Finalists in this Category included -
Murphy's SuperValu Supermarket in the port town of Castletownbere is run by Lorraine Murphy, a daughter of the proprietor.
Other Finalists in this Category included -
Tashinny National School is a three teacher primary school in Longford with 44 students.
Unused paper is shredded and used for bedding for a family of rabbits. Paper was also used in a wormery, as the worms enjoy eating damp shredded paper. All banana skins, apple cores, orange peels and tea bags are composted and used in the school gardens. Batteries, milk cartons, clothes, shoes, bags, bed linen, mobile phones and ink cartridges are all recycled in the school. Boxes, plastic bottles, toilet roll tubes, newspapers and Christmas cards are used in Art & Craft classes to make all sorts of wonderful creations. This school used to keep hens and make a hen-run out of old election posters - they are hoping to bring the hens back this year after they make a bigger hen-run from recycled materials. Other Finalists in this Category included -
Repak Repak is a not-for-profit members-based packaging compliance scheme - currently Ireland's only producer responsibility scheme - which was established under a voluntary agreement between industry and the Department of the Environment and Local Government in 1997. It was created as industry's response to the obligations placed on Ireland by the EU directive on Packaging Waste (94/62/EC) and is the only government-approved compliance scheme under the Waste Management (Packaging) Regulations 1997. Repak succeeded in reaching - and exceeding - Ireland's National Recycling Target of 25% of packaging waste in 2001 and 50% in 2005 - as set by the EU directive. Repak runs a variety of educational initiatives - such as the Repak Recycling Week in October, the Repak Green Christmas and the Repak National Conference. It is also a sponsor of An Taisce's National Spring Clean campaign, the Tidy Towns Competition and the schools-based Repak Cash for Cans programme.
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