Piparella visits South Dublin Schools for Recycling Week

30/09/2003

Archived item. This item is published here for historical reasons. The information below may be out of date.

Issued on behalf of the Council                                                  Document Title:                         Piparella visits South Dublin Schools for Recycling Week

by B Hickey Head of Corporate Services                         Author                        : Ann Marie Fitzpatrick

Tel: 4149100                                                  Creation Date: 30^th Sept 03

                                Email:bhickey@sdublincoco.ie

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Wednesday, 1^st October 2003

Piparella Visits South Dublin Schools as part of Repak National Recycling Week

As part of Repak National Recycling, approximately 500 children in South Dublin were entertained by an educational recycling show called “Piparella and the Lost Colours” This is an interactive show that has been especially developed to educate children about the benefits of recycling in a fun and entertaining way. The shows took place today in the Tallaght Youth Theatre. Thirty-four shows will run throughout Repak National Recycling Week and beyond, visiting schools and other venues in Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Waterford, with up to 250 children attending each show. Repak are working with in excess of 25 Local Authorities around the country to help raise the profile of recycling at a local as well as national level.

Householders in South County Dublin are being asked to ‘Start Recycling – Keep recycling’ during the third annual Repak National Recycling Week which takes place from 29^th September until 5^th October 2003.  The week is designed to encourage consumers to use the week to kick-start their recycling habits and to provide information about best recycling practices.  Repak and South Dublin County Council have organised activities throughout the area, which aim to educate householders on the importance of recycling as well as outlining some of the recycling services available to them.

Between January and June 2003, at South Dublin’s 24 can banks, householders recycled 637,800 cans – the equivalent of 16.7 tonnes of aluminium.  A further 810 tonnes of glass were recycled in the area during this period.

The main focus of Repak National Recycling Week is to encourage consumers to become pro-actively involved in recycling at work and at home.  The key to good recycling practice is segregating and separating recyclables. Once segregated, the packaging waste – plastic bottles, paper, cardboard, glass, steel and aluminium cans can be taken to the nearest bring centre or local recycling centre. Last year approximately 4,367 tonnes of packaging was recycled throughout the month of October and it is hoped to increase this by 30% this year. In 2002 Repak funded the recycling of approximately 50,000 tonnes of packaging waste sourced from the domestic waste stream. This was 60% up on the previous year, however we in Ireland are still dumping in excess of 60% of used packaging that should be recycled.

South Dublin County Council hope to provide a number of new recycling facilities in the near future and will be visiting schools during Repak National Recycling Week to talk to children about recycling.

Peter Moffat, a representative of the Environmental Services Department in South Dublin County Council says, “South Dublin County Council is proud to support Repak National Recycling Week and hopes the public will fully utilise the range of Bringbanks, Civic Amenity Sites and Green Waste facility in our area.  For full details see www.southdublin.ie/environment or phone environment at 4149000 ext. 4248.”

Speaking at the launch of the week Andrew Hetherington, CEO Repak said “We have found that once people start recycling and made it a habit that they find it easy and see huge benefits.  Recycling not only reduces our dependence on landfill it also but also benefits households directly by removing up to one third of each household bin.  During this week we are calling on all households in South County Dublin to recycle all their glass bottles, steal and Aluminium cans and other packaging waste in their houses to try to recycle a record amount during the month of October.”

To help consumers get into the recycling habit Repak will be listing full details of Bring Bank locations and Recycling centres on the Repak website http://www.repak.ie/. This information will also be available through the LoCall number 1 850 909999 operated between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday.

The week kicks off with an extensive National and Local radio and TV advertising campaign.

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