A chara, - Until quite recently, I used a paper recycling bank in a Blackrock shopping centre. When, however, that bank was abruptly removed, I inquired about the current facilities for paper recycling in the city environs. I was informed that virtually all such facilities had been withdrawn, and that the only existing centres were in landfill sites based in Dunsink, Walkinstown, and Belalley; all three are quite a distance away from the city centre. On top of the expense and difficulties in transporting large quantities of paper to these sites - I have no car - I was told that I might also incur a personal expense for using the landfills themselves!
The cynics amongst us may suspect that the reasoning behind the decision to withdraw the extant facilities was based on mere economics; and, indeed, such cynicism would be appropriate. It seems that the bottom has fallen out of the paper recycling market, and that it is no longer financially viable (read: profit-making) to recycle paper from individuals. Perhaps this will not come as too much of a surprise to those of us who were suspicious of professed "eco-friendliness" among commercial companies.
Needless to say, next time you read or hear of such palpable nonsense and blatant lip-service as, say, an advertising spin on petrol as environmentally friendly (!), be sure to take these claims with a large dose of ozone-friendly, low-fat, sodium-reduced salt. - Yours, etc., David Walsh,
Parnell Street, Dublin 1.
