Recycling

esperanza

Does the Irish government have any official policy on recycling? It seems as if we far behind some European countries, such as The Netherlands and Germany.

Some individual households do make an effort to recycle but if the government doesn't adopt any policy, is it really worthwhile?

What do you do as an individual to improve the environment?

saibhne

The Government does have an official policy on waste management - this has been summed up by the catch phrase Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (in that order). The bin tax and the plastic bag tax are products of this policy which are designed to encourage the public to change their wasteful ways.

I must say I think this policy (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) is a good achievable policy, only problem is it relies on the public (consumer) to do all the work.
As far as I can see, in order for this policy to be successful the public must firstly stop purchasing things which are disposable and difficult to recycle - (mostly plastics and packaging), Secondly, those things which they do purchase they should ensure that they can reuse them for the same purpose e.g. getting refills instead of buying a new bottle of washing up liquid. Thirdly those things purchased that can't be reused should be recycled e.g. newspapers, glass...

In theory we should be able to approach a zero - waste household if we all went to the shops with these ideals in mind and the market responded accordingly. However, it is a difficult thing to achieve in this day and age without really putting a lot of time and effort into it. The conclusion of a study conducted by Dept of Environment on this subject (based on the success of the plastic bag tax) was that the Irish public would act in an environmentally friendly manner if it was made easy to do so - the operative word being easy..

Instead of making it easy, this government seems to be devoting more time to a waste management system which will use incineration as the main method of disposal. Ironically this system of Incineration will only work if the policy of Reduce, Reuse and recycle doesn't. I recently phoned the public office of the proposed Incinerator in Ringsend and asked what exactly they intended to burn - the answer was that they would burn mostly contaminated Household waste, i.e household waste that you cannot recycle.
I'm sure that by being a savvy consumer and with a little government (EU?) help in the form of packaging regulation, I can get to a point where my household isn't producing waste that can't be recycled - If I can do it so can anybody - so why do we need incinerators? Perhaps a topic for another thread....

Cheers,

S.

BolBill

I think the interest hasn't been there since the days of Roche and Kelly dominating the sport. These days Armstrong makes it look too easy but hes finished at last. I agree the Germans and the Dutch are better than us at it alright.