About 70 per cent of recycled materials collected in the Republic is exported, mainly to the Far East.
"It's ludicrous to be sending so much overseas for processing and then re-importing the material when we could be closing the loop ourselves," says Darrell Crowe, of Repak.
Take polyethylene (PET) bottles, for example. Though Wellman Ltd has a plant in Co Cavan that produces 80,000 tonnes of them, most of its raw material has to be imported because there is no facility in Ireland to segregate, wash and chip recycled PET from green bins.
Shabra Ltd, in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, which recycles plastic film to make refuse sacks, has long signalled that it would be prepared to set up a washing and chipping plant for PET, but without grant-aid from the Government this wouldn't be a viable proposition.
JFC Ltd in Tuam, Co Galway - nominated for the 2005 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year - has invested in a machine to make corrugated road drainage pipes from plastic milk and shampoo bottles. But this depends on getting pre-washed material in pellet form.
Some 5,000 tonnes of recycled PET and HDPE (high density polyethylene) bottles were exported to China and other Asian countries in 2004, and this could rise to 10,000 tonnes this year. The export trade is justified on the basis that ships from Asia would otherwise be returning empty. "It's a lot better than having it all landfilled here," says PJ Rudden, of RPS-MCOS consulting engineers.
Further information on Repak Recycling Week from www.repak.ie