The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
The scale of plastic waste generated in Ireland amounts to the weight of 80 rugby balls or 8.2 Web Ellis cups per person every year, Repak has revealed. A massive 169,000 tonnes of plastic packaging waste is generated per year in Ireland, amounting to 37kg per person. At the launch of the 15th Repak Recycle Week, Irish consumers have been asked to “make plastic fantastic” by recycling their plastic packaging. Repak is a not for profit packaging recycling scheme funded by contributions from more than 2120 participating members companies. While plastic materials constitute a huge 31% of total household waste, just 36% of plastics are actually recycled. The number of plastic bottles that end up in landfill every year would stretch around the island of Ireland 2,000 times and in landfill these bottles could take up to a millennium (1,000 years) to biodegrade. For every tonne of plastic recycled we save the equivalent of 1.5 tonnes of CO2 released into …
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