City smashes glass recycling record

A survey conducted by Rehab Recycling Partnership (RRP) for Repak National Recycling Week, which takes place from September 29 to October 5, reveals that over the period January to August 2003, glass recycling in Waterford city increased by 17% when compared with figures for the same period last year.Over 224,000 individual bottles and jars were deposited in the city’s bring banks during the first eight months of this year – representing a total of 69 tonnes of waste glass.The glass bank site at Superquinn was the city’s best performing site.During the first eight months of the year, 44 tonnes of glass was deposited at the site — representing 143,000 individual items of glass.

Commenting on Repak National Recycling Week, Mr. Bob Rowat, RRP General Manager, said: “These figures show that the people of Waterford are playing a key role in the campaign to protect their environment for themselves and future generations.”

“However, there is still a lot more that can be done. Despite the steady increase in bottle bank deposits, an average of only 15 items of glass were recycled for every household in Waterford during the period January to August 2003. That’s less than 5 bottles and jars recycled for every man, woman and child in the county.

“A lot of glass is still ending up in our county’s landfill sites. In fact, it is estimated that as many as 180 million household bottles and jars go into rubbish dumps each year — that is an awful lot of landfill space being taken up by recyclable materials.”

Speaking at the launch of Repak National Recycling Week, Mr. Andrew Hetherington, CEO, Repak, said: “Over the past year there has been an improvement in the recycling infrastructure but our research shows that we are still dumping 60% of used packaging, and that only 14% of all adults visit a bring bank every week.

“We are calling on all households to use this week as the ideal time to kick start a recycling habit. The message is simple, separate out recyclable materials such as glass, cans, plastic and cardboard from your rubbish at home and make visiting your local bring bank part of your routine.”