Sir, - I noted, from recent articles in yours and the general national press, that the collection of waste paper around the country or the capital is to be suspended. The reason given was that the use of recycled paper was now found to be an uneconomic proposition for the Irish paper manufacturing industry.
My first thoughts are that this is, at the very least, an enormous pity. It appears to me that any recycling centre I have visited over the last few months, and incorporating a collection facility for waste paper, was continuously and regularly used. It seems that the idea of recycling paper won wide acceptance from the public and tapped into a significant sympathy towards reducing waste and gathering products that could be put to good use through recycling. Surely there is a way in which not only to harness this established momentum, but perhaps to bring it to a higher level of activity.
I noted that a paper mill in Ireland that traditionally used waste paper was no longer interested in utilising it as a feed stock. Is this because it was unsuitable, or that there was no market for the end product? Was this not noted as a problem when the waste paper collection project was first implemented?
What if we legislated against the use of plastic carrier bags in supermarkets? Would the use of reinforced paper carrier bags provide a very useful end product that could be derived from wastepaper products? Could this be a way to dispense, at a stroke, with one of the most significant blights on our landscape, as well as creating a realistic market for our waste paper?
It all seems too good to be true.
I would be interested in any views your readers might have. Yours, etc., Kincora Road, Clontarf, Dublin 3.