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THE AVERAGE IRISH household recycling rate has increased from 58 per cent in 2011 to 65 per cent this year. These good habits have also been transferred to the office with an 8 per cent uptake in recycling at work compared to 2011.
The research, carried out for Repak Recycling Week, which begins today, also shows that around 70 per cent of people think producers or retailers should pay for the recovery and recycling of the packaging they supply but only a quarter of people are aware that they currently do this.
Consumer research also shows that government proposals are unpopular with 70 per cent of people opposed to a visible fee on packaging to support the recycling of the item and less than 5 per cent of consumers support the ‘deposit and refund’ system over ‘existing kerbside and bring’ collection systems.
In the past 15 years, there have been notable changes in recycling trends with 651,000 tonnes recycled last year in Ireland, six times the amount recycled in 1998. In 2011, over 66 per cent of packaging was recycled versus 15% in 1998. Repak attribute these accomplishments to:
Do you recycle?
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I used to recycle when i lived at home. Now I live in quite a large apartment block with communal bins and im amazed to find that theres no recycling bins! Insane!
I lived in apartments in Dublin where the bins were 50ft from the door of the building, whereas recycling was a trip downstairs to the underground car park (not via the the building but an outside portal), walk 100m underground to the next car park, before walking down a dangerous (due to cars) curving ramp with no footpath to get the the little recycling center.
Net result? Recycling in the bin area. That said, people still seemed willing to separate so saps like me were able to collect it and bring it down with my own.
Fab!
It’s not always easy to recycle – where do you recycle lightbulbs, for instance? But at least with Lidl and Aldi, it’s acceptable to leave behind the plastic packaging in the shop.
Isn’t there a WEEE charge on bulbs? You can just bring them back to wherever you buy a new bulb! Or a recycling centre!
Electrical wholesalers will take bulbs off you. I do it all the time
Although started with the best intensions, recycling has become an industry all of itself. The waste hierarchy is clear: reduction in waste generation is more important than recycling. Although it’s better than sending the stuff to landfill, recycling still uses more resources (diesel for the trucks, electricity for the recycling plants) than not generating packaging in the first place. It has been reported that recycling can actually encourage wastefulness http://news.discovery.com/earth/recycling-encourages-wastefulness-120620.html .
Irish people only recycle because the bin is normally free.
If it cost money to recycle id rather just put everything in landfill, save me the hassle
I actually can’t recycle at the moment. We are with Greyhound in the house we rent and despite numerous requests for recycling bags, we haven’t been sent any new ones. When they will arrive there will only be about 10 or so to last a few months.
I do understand you can leave out clear plastic bags with your recyclable waste in them but they are very hard to find!
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