Waste & You

Dealing With Waste

How Can You Help?

Waste Management

	Waste - A Potted History

Current Waste Problem

With the Island of Ireland producing millions of tonnes of waste per year, Government has statutory targets for recycling and recovery of wastes imposed by the European Commission through many EU Environmental Directives. If waste targets are not achieved, heavy fines will be imposed. Any fines imposed will be paid by the government but will indirectly be paid by private businesses and households. Therefore, there is an evident need for something to be done.

There are lots of important reasons to reduce and recycle your waste:

	Most of what we throw away is made from natural resources that are slowly running out or cannot be replaced quickly enough because of the amount we consume.
	Many of the materials we throw in landfill sites can be recycled and used again.
	There are many different materials that may be used again, paper, glass, many metals, and organic material for use as compost, as well as plastics that can be used in combination with other recycled material to make reusable products.

Making new aluminium cans from recycled cans uses 20 times less energy than making cans from the raw material. The use of new technology is available to extract metals from household waste.

Tonnes of waste are sent to landfill sites every year. These sites cannot last forever, but the less waste we send to landfill sites, the longer they will last.

Reducing what we use and recycling materials in an environmentally safe way reduces the need to mine new raw materials, which often damages the surrounding environment and adds to the overall cost.

Many charities and community groups raise money through reusing and recycling.

Employment can be generated by businesses involving renovation, repair and recycling