Community leaders, individuals, politicians, local authority staff and people with an interest in reuse, recycling and community work are encouraged to attend the ‘Preventing Waste, Strengthening Communities Conference’ at the Civic Centre in Ballymun, Dublin 9 on Thursday, 7th October 2010. Organised by the all-island Community Recycling Network, this one-day event will include international speakers Pauline Hinchion from Zero Waste Scotland and Marc Willem from KOMOSIE in Belgium, who will lead lively discussion and equip delegates with the knowledge and motivation to help progress and develop the community reuse and recycling sector.

“The Preventing Waste, Strengthening Communities Conference will be a vibrant event that will provide ideas and solutions on how to reuse materials and prevent waste in the community while create training and job opportunities too,” says John Scally, chairman of the network. “The one day conference, as well as offering plenty of networking opportunities, will feature informative and motivational contributions from high-profile Irish and international experts.”

The conference will focus on Reuse in Practice, Valuing Social Enterprise, Reuse in Europe, and Employment, Training, and Social Exclusion.

* Pauline Hinchion, one of the speakers, is the Chief Executive of the Community Recycling Network for Scotland and will be using her experience to engage with attendees on best practice reuse centres in Scotland and how these have developed.

* Marc Willem will provide a European perspective on protecting the environment and providing job opportunities, as he is a member of Reuse and Recycling European Union Social Enterprises (RREUSE).

* Sean Coughlan, CEO of Social Entrepreneurs Ireland, will speak about the value of social enterprise, highlighting how communities all around Ireland have benefitted from the diverse range of projects started by social entrepreneurs and why investing in social enterprise is a value for money investment.

The event is supported by the Environmental Protection Agency, rx3 and the Department of Environment Northern Ireland. For more information on the Preventing Waste, Strengthening Communities Conference or to register for €20, please visit www.crni.ie.

There are over 492,000 primary school children in Ireland each bringing in over 2 million packed lunches weekly (or 80 million per year). Mother of four Shauna Walsh thought there must be a more environmentally friendly and easier to open method to pack the kids sandwiches.

She developed the Paper Lunch Bags. The environmentally friendly alternative, Paper Lunch Bags are made with greaseproof paper and can be reused, recycled and keep the lunch at its freshest.

Shauna Walsh has four children in ages from 4 to 14 and disliked sending them off to school with their lunches wrapped in plastic, foil or cling-film. Her youngest two found the cling-film hard to open and harder to reuse with the elder two becoming more and more conscious of their surrounding environment. 

“With nothing available in the market and schools pushing children to become more ecologically aware through the Green Flag Scheme I decided to develop my own. Luckily we already have a packing business and it was through this that I created the easy to use, environmentally friendly alternative, The Paper Lunch Bags,” she explains.

Paper Lunch Bags come in packs of 50 and are available in Superquinn, Tesco and Supervalu stores throughout the country at a recommended retail cost of Eur2.49.