Tánaiste calls for greater recycling

While people are recycling more than they ever have before, Ireland is still generating too much waste and remains overly reliant on landfills, Tánaiste Mary Coughlan said today.

Speaking at the unveiling of a new initiative aimed at encouraging direct marketing firms to reduce their carbon footprint, Ms Coughlan said that the amount of waste recycled in Ireland has grown from 9 per cent in 1998 to 36 per cent in 2006.

Packaging waste recycling over the same period rose from just under 15 per cent to over 57 per cent.

Nonetheless, Ms Coughlan said that more needed to be done to ensure that all forms of waste is reduced.

“Take a visit to any of the range of new recycling centres that have been rolled out in recent years funded by the Environment Fund out of the income receipts from the plastic bag and landfill levies and you will get a clear picture of just how much we have changed our ways; people busily segregating their bottles, cans, newspapers, textiles into the various receptacles provided.

"People have integrated the recycling ethic into their normal everyday lives. That in the space of a few years is a formidable achievement,” said Ms Coughlan.

“But there’s a long road ahead; we are still generating too much waste and we are still landfilling an excessive amount,” she added.

She was speaking at the publication of a new set of guidelines compiled by An Post and the Irish Direct Marketing Association. The guidelines are intended to assist marketers in the planning and development of environmentally responsible direct mail campaigns.

“Working together with industry, we want to see all forms of waste minimised, including that resulting from direct marketing activity. A voluntary approach like this allows the maximum opportunity to develop ways of increasing recycling and reducing waste, which is our collective goal,” she said.