REDUCE, REUSE AND RECYCLE

 

Waste Management

90% of household rubbish is recyclable. While Ireland has made progress towards waste recovery and recycling, this does not mean that it is more sustainable. We still produce 1.2 tonnes of waste per year for a typical four person household. We need to prevent and minimise waste generation.

We live in a throwaway society and we should now begin to realise that this is causing problems to our environment.  We need to reduce our waste by our purchasing methods, as well as repair and reuse items more often.   Ladies, get those needles out and consider repairing; and gentlemen, get the screwdrivers out and do your bit.  If you want to change roles please do – we need a new industry of the handyman or woman either in the home or in the community.   Parents teach your children how to change that plug, mend those socks and all those things we used to do before prosperity hit us and we became a throwaway society, and before we forget how to do them and can pass the skills on.

We are improving: In Ireland, about 73% of the average bin is used for energy recovery or recycling.

Approx. 1.4 million tonnes of household waste was generated in Ireland in 2013.

  • The rate of recovery of household waste is 72%. But of this just 28% is recycled, and 45% is incinerated with energy recovery. 27% still goes to landfill
  • 115 civic amenity sites and 1,800 bring banks were in operation in 2013.
  • Packaging waste recovery rate was 87% in 2014.
  • Recycling of biodegradable waste has improved, but we still send over 380,000 tonnes to landfill every year.

(Source - EPA National Database Report 2005)]

How can we help at this time?

Reduce Waste

Inside our homes we should sort the waste: 
  • Waste that cannot be recycled, re-used or repaired
  • Items we no longer need that could still be of use to others – drop off at a charity shop
  • Recycling – that goes to a centre where some are recycled, normally in a “Green Bin”
  • Organic bio-degradable waste for composting

White goods and other items covered under the WEEE directive (Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment) need to be recycled and can be either taken back to the shop or to the Recycling Centres in Clare.


Composting

The most effective way a local community can help is with regard to composting, which is covered separately.

70% of our waste is kitchen waste and most of this is organic. Add to this the garden waste and these account for the majority of our waste. 

Clothes & Textiles

Natural fibres can be recycled, but most clothes and bed linen can be re-used or even repaired. Consider buying fibres that do not need to end up in the landfills, repair where possible, as this is very effective. But if you want to dispose of them, make sure that they are re-used.  Donate them to charity shops, place then in the clothes bin from which they are re-used or consider clothes swapping within a small circle of friends.

Use of Paper

Paper is one of the most frequent materials in the waste bin, letters and envelopes that arrived in the post, newspapers, magazines, and administrative work at home all produce waste paper. This can represent as much as 23% of household waste when you add packaging.

  • Newspapers and magazines should be put in for recycling
  • Reuse the paper when you can, by using both sides in your printer.
  • Put waste paper by the side of your telephone for making notes.
  • Shred what is left over and use in your composting.
  • Make your home office paperless, by keeping all documents in your computer – it’s also much easier to manage than paper files

Avoid Junk Mail.

Did you know that you could stop “junk mail” coming into your letterbox – there is a system called “Your Right to Choose” and all you have to do is sign on to the system at your local An Post. 

In time, those firms who send unwanted mail may stop, if more and more of us choose not to receive them.

Most utility bills can now be delivered by email, saving lots of paper


Littering

Many of our towns and cities are heavily littered and, although the fines for both littering and dumping have been increased, most still happens due to lack of civic pride and enforcement. 

In rural areas, the lack of litter bins can cause much littering. Asking people to take their litter with them often works, but so do little bins that are emptied often and sorted for recycling. 

On a simple level – do not litter yourself, encourage others not to litter and, if you see litter on the ground, pick it up and dispose of it yourself.   Most litter ends up in the tip.

Those items with dangerous chemicals

Mobile phones, batteries, light bulbs (especially low energy ones) and printer cartridges should all be recycled because they are dangerous to our health due to the many chemicals used in their make-up. These can now be taken to Ennis, Inagh or Shannon recycling centres, free of charge.

Paper Towels

These are disposable and may even be made from recycled paper but there are more efficient ways:

  • Most of the time the towels are wet or soiled with things that cannot be put in the composting bins.
  • There is no waste if you use a sponge or a cloth towel. These can be washed and reused. 

 

Many of the paper towels are bleached with chlorine and are not easily recycled. Plus they can come from trees, which would be better if they were left there as carbon sinks.

Nappies

 Disposal nappies may have been a godsend to mothers but they have been a curse to the landfill.  In Ireland 600,000 of these are used in Ireland every day and almost all have ended up in the nation's landfill, where it takes many hundreds of years to decompose.  When shopping, consider buying washable ones. They will save a significant amount of money over their lifetime.

Is recycling sustainable?

It salves our consciences, but in itself recycling is not the solution. We need to reduce the generation of waste in the first place.

We need to improve in the following ways:

There is nobody out there who is going to solve our problems for us. Our rubbish and its consequences depend on us. .As householders, we need to produce as little rubbish as possible and thereby reduce the demand on the planet’s resources, and help reduce greenhouse gases.  This means a change in our “Mindset” and in our approach to what we buy. 

We need to make recycling more “sustainable”. Sending things abroad or to the other side of Ireland is not energy efficient. What is needed is that local businesses that will deal with these recycled goods and weigh the charges such that it is more economically viable. Most organic waste can be composted at the household level, thereby reducing biodegradable waste sent to landfills and methane emissions from the landfills.

Better options are:

Reduce, Reuse, Repair and then Recycle, with disposal the very last option.