A four-month pilot recycling project in Co Laois will begin this week. It will give householders the opportunity to separate reusable waste in their refuse, such as plastic bottles, newspapers and magazines.
The project starts in 150 households in the Beladd estate, Portlaoise, tomorrow. Householders in the area have been given one new bin, for recyclables only, which will be collected once a month by Advanced Environmental Solutions (AES), the company which initiated the scheme.
The company says it hopes to extend the scheme throughout the midlands in the coming months.
Ms Damhnait McGuire, waste education officer, Laois County Council, said people should rinse and remove the caps of plastic milk bottles and plastic mineral bottles before placing them in the bin. Newspapers, magazines, and cardboard should be kept dry. Aluminum drink cans should be emptied.
The project will be closely monitored, said Ms Margaret Heavey, senior engineer, waste management, Laois County Council. She says the information collected by the council during this pilot will be used to improve recycling rates countywide.
Ms Heavey said: "In the Midlands Waste Management Plan, door-to-door collection of recyclables is proposed for the towns of Portlaoise, Portarlington and Mountmellick. The objective is to divert as much waste as possible from landfill through recycling."
The target for the midlands is to recycle 47 per cent of the waste, no easy task considering that at present over 93 per cent of the waste collected in the county goes directly to the county landfill site.
In a survey conducted by Laois County Council, 62 per cent of people in Beladd said they already recycled some of their waste and were keen to recycle more.