Ireland finding markets for its 'bring bank' waste

RECYCLING:IRELAND IS finding markets for its recycled, cans, paper and plastics and is not stockpiling a large proportion of its "bring bank" material, Minister for the Environment John Gormley has insisted.

Pointing to the opening of a new €27 million green bin recycling centre in west Dublin, Mr Gormley said the project was proof that the “green economy” was working.

The plant, which will handle up to 100,000 tonnes of dry recyclables a year, turning it into baled “recyclate” for export, was developed for the four Dublin local authorities.

It was financed almost entirely by the environmental levy on plastic bags and landfill and employs an on-site staff of 85, with 100 more employed on the green bin collection rounds.

Responding to reports of a collapse in the world market for recyclate, Mr Gormley said Ireland had less than 10,000 tonnes of recyclables stockpiled, which was significantly less than had been feared.

This was put in perspective, he said by the 100,000 tonnes of dry recyclate the new plant would produce per year, which he said was “moving on the international market”.

The key to finding markets was ensuring high quality material and as long as this was the case, “consumers can have confidence in our recycling sector”, he said. While he expected proposals from the the European Commission to develop the market further and these were important, future development of products from recyclables in the home market was essential. To this end he promised investment of €13 million over the next five years. “I am confident this will deliver further innovation, investment and employment in the green sector,” he said.

The plant at Ballymount Industrial estate is designed to cater for the processing of green bin materials from the Dublin region for the next 20 years.

Material brought to an arrivals hall is examined for contaminants before items such as clothes are manually taken from the stream. The recyclables are fed onto conveyor belts which rise to a number of levels as elements such as tin cans are mechanically separated.

Aluminium cans are extracted electronically and waste paper is shredded mechanically and blown together. All the materials are then separately baled on site and sent for further processing or recovery.

Assistant Dublin city manager Matt Twomey, who is in charge of the region’s waste management policy, said local authorities were depending on households to present clean, separated material in their green bins.

While he acknowledged the process of exporting material consumed much energy, he said tin and aluminium went only to Britain, while the paper went to China in ships which were returning there anyway.