The Clean Technology Centre has called on local authorities to follow the example of Limerick, Clare and Kerry in setting up a plastic bottle recycling scheme.
Mr Tadhg Coakley, of the Cork-based centre, said the hard plastics which make up the bottles now used for soft drinks, mineral water and detergents were recyclable and take from 100 to 400 years to decompose.
He estimates that 17 per cent of the 134,000 tonnes of household plastic waste produced in 1998 was plastic bottles, amounting to about 450 million units.
"More local authorities need to follow the example of Clare, Limerick and Kerry," he said.
The local authorities in these areas set up 60 plastic bottle banks at 35 locations throughout the region.
The banks will be emptied by an Antrim-based company, Irish Polymers, who will sort them and send them abroad for processing.
"One of the oddities is that some of the material we get goes from us to Britain to Holland and then gets re-imported into Ireland to Wellman International. One of our intentions is to try and cut out that triangle."
Wellman, a synthetic fibre manufacturer, is based in Kells, Co Meath.
Mr Wilson added that 14 out of 26 local authorities in the North were now involved in plastic recycling schemes. The company is also in discussions with the local authorities in Sligo and Leitrim and are putting a proposal to Donegal County Council.
The Midwest scheme has been implemented at a relatively cheap cost for the four local authorities. Each bank costs £350, according to Ms SinΘad McDonnell, environmental awareness officer with Limerick Corporation, and the collection and transportation costs are met by Irish Polymers.
Mr M∅cheβl O Coileβin, of Kerry County Council, said 180,000 bottles, weighing 9,000 kilos, could potentially be collected every fortnight in the region.
"If you squash your bottle, you get 3,000 bottles, or 1,000 unsquashed bottles. Taking the top off, washing them and squashing them is the message."
Clare County Council has provided 16 banks, based at eight locations. "We are trying hard not to have an over-flowing situation where we get negative feedback from the public," Ms Joan Tarmey said.
Some other local authorities have set up pilot schemes which are being extended. Galway Corporation has introduced a household segregated recycling scheme to 18,000 city homes.
People place the bottles in clear plastic bags for collection. Schemes have also been introduced in Dublin, Cork and Waterford.
"The cheapest way to do this is source separation at household level. Ours is probably the most refined one in the country and the first to go city-wide," Mr Richard Maguire, environment education officer with Galway Corporation, said.
Mr Wilson said plastic bottles, often dumped with their caps intact, take up huge volumes of space on landfill sites relative to their weight.
"We are trying to encourage people to use glass because it is 90 per cent recyclable and it does not have to go through so much of a process as the plastic bottles.
Mr Wilson's company will recycle PET (polyethylene terephthalate plastics, used for soft drinks and mineral waters and HDPE (high density polyethylene), the plastic used in milk and detergent bottles.
The plastics will end up as bales or pellets and will be re-used for such diverse products as carpet backing, pipes, or garden furniture.
The Government has a target of recycling 35 per cent of household waste by 2013. An Environmental Protection Agency survey found that 9.1 per cent of the household waste generated in 1998 was recycled. Figures on last year are due out shortly.