Repak Recycling Week kicks off today Monday October 4th with a focus on recycling in the office. Research carried for Repak Recycling Week shows that Irish people have much better recycling habits in the home than the workplace.

The research of over 1,000 adults showed that 47% of those working do not regularly recycling in the workplace kitchen/canteen compared to only 3% who do not regularly recycle in the household kitchen. Meanwhile 62% do not regularly recycle from the office/desk and 88% do not recycling from the stationary room.

When questioned what items they regularly recycle, Plastic drinks bottles were the most recycled item in the workplace at 58% but this was far below the 87% that was reported to be recycled at home. 83% claim not to regularly recycle their used food tins in work and 55% do not recycle their used take away coffee cups. A similar pattern was evident in the differential between recycled milk containers which showed 49% recycled in work compared with 85% at home, soft drinks cans at 47% in work versus 83% at home.

Despite the low recycling rates reported by Irish workers many are admitting to bringing packaged products into the workplace with over 52% buying or bringing plastic bottled products into work and 43% buying take away coffee followed by 40% who buy pre-packaged sandwiches. All of the associated packaging on these items can and are fully recyclable.

When questioned about recycling habits at home versus the office 55% reported that they recycle more at home than in work with only 15% claiming to recycle more in the office.

“This research shows that people are not bringing their good recycling habits in the household into their workplaces. This is of concern as we face ever increasing packaging recycling targets. However more concerning for companies is they could be risking potential prosecution as it is illegal for organisations to knowingly dump recyclable packaging,” comments Dr Andrew Hetherington, chief executive of Repak. “With some simple changes in the office practice much can be done as witnessed in home recycling. More importantly companies can save on their waste charges by implementing recycling systems and also help improve the work environment for the employees.”

In order to help people recycle better in the office Repak has produced a series of recycling posters that can be put up in the workplace. The posters are available from www.recyclemore.ie.

Last year over 20 kilos of used packaging was recycled every second in Ireland according to packaging recycling scheme Repak. The results were announced at the launch of Repak Recycling Week which runs from October 4th to 10th and this year is encouraging people to recycle more by targeting recycling in the workplace.

According to the packaging recycling scheme, a total of 644,000 tonnes of used packaging or the equivalent of 24.3 million green bins was recycled at a total cost of €28.9 million to Repak. Ireland now has a packaging recycling rate of 65%, which ranks Ireland 8th among the current 27 EU member states, ahead of Sweden, the UK, France and Denmark.

“Last year each Irish household recycled over 144 kilos of cans, bottles, boxes and other used packaging types. This is a great achievement and shows what can be achieved as we become more of a recycling society,” points out Dr Andrew Hetherington, chief executive of Repak. “However Ireland’s future targets continue to grow and we need to grow the amount that people recycle not only at home but also in the workplace. This year we are targeting the recycling of an additional 17,500 extra tonnes of packaging during October.”

This year the 10th Repak Recycling Week is running a series of initiatives to encourage people to bring the good recycling habits they have developed at home into the work place and outside the home. Initiatives during the week include:

* Launch of a recycling locations on Garmin Sat Nav maps.

* Free promotion for a Garmin Sat Nav system with Irish, UK and western maps and Irish Recycling location pre loaded.

* Free Electrical and Battery Recycling days in conjunction with WEEE Ireland.

* Series of downloadable posters for the office.

* Repak Recycling Awards and Repak Conference on 7th October.

* National awareness advertising campaign.

Repak has in conjunction with the Local Authorities mapped 97% of all recycling facilities in the country. As part of Repak’s drive to help people find their nearest recycling centre and bottle banks while on the move the organisation has also joined forces with Garmin which sees the locations and details of recycling points included as ‘Points of Interests’ on its Irish maps.

This supplements the Repak online map searching facility on www.recyclemore.ie and means that Irish recyclers can easily find the nearest venue to dispose of their used packaging. Now Garmin users will have access not only to the location and address of the recycling facilities but also contact details and materials accepted. As part of the launch Repak is running a competition for a free Garmin Satnav on its Repak Recycling Week channel on the Repak RecycleMore.ie website.

At the beginning and end of Repak Recycling Week special waste electrical and battery recycling collection events will be held around the country in conjunction with WEEE Ireland.

At these collection days special collection points for large and small electrical items will be established. Further WEEE collection days will take place over the Month of October and will be posted on the Repak Recycling Week page on Recyclemore.ie website and the WEEE Ireland website.

Repak has also made available a series of downloadable material from its consumer site RecycleMore.ie including hints, tips on how to recycle more around the office and a print off snakes and ladders game.