The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
CREE-based Clean Ireland Recycling has won the accolade for Kerbside Collector of the Year at the National Repak awards.
It was one of only two categories for waste management operators out of the total of 12 awards, with Clean Ireland also one of just three companies selected for the second waste operator award – Recovery Operator of the Year. Repak Ltd is the Government-approved organisation that facilitates and promotes packaging recycling in Ireland and the awards are the most significant in the industry.
Speaking as the company received the award at an event in Croke Park, Caroline Walsh of Clean Ireland Recycling said the accolade recognises Clean Ireland Recycling’s on-going commitment to providing a premium service to its customers, which allows them to achieve sustainable savings, with minimum impact on the environment.
“We have won numerous awards before as a company but this is the probably the most satisfying as it recognises the company for what it wants to be recognised most for – providing the best service to customers,” she said.
Ms Walsh said that arriving at this point has taken a lot of work on Clean Ireland’s part. “We have built progressively over the past 21 years to where we are today. This has involved investing in a range of initiatives like becoming the first company to introduce a 360 litre dry-recycling bin to customers, which saw the level of recycling increase by 30% due to this increased capacity. We also introduced a 25 litre food waste bin for the disposal of food waste, which, again, is diverting more waste from landfill and helping us to achieve our aim of zero waste to landfill by 2013,” she said.
“We also provide a free bi-monthly glass collection in urban areas as well as an ‘opt-in text’ grass Collection service. On top of that, we were also the first operator in the region to introduce a kerbside clothes collection service in conjunction the Brothers of Charity and for the past three years also, we have provided our customers with the option of disposing of their Christmas tree,” Ms Walsh noted.
“Becoming the first company in Europe to introduce multi-compartment trucks has facilitated all of this. These vehicles enable us to collect waste bins, recycle bins, food waste and used clothing from any given house together on the same day every fortnight. This has offset recent sharp rise in fuel prices and also means less time on the road and, therefore, lower emissions which results in a significantly lower carbon footprint for us and for our customers,” she concluded.
