Glass bottles and paper are recycled at the Rehab plant in Swords and a plastic bank opens at Superquinn in Walkinstown.
In 1987 the Rehabilitation Institute (Rehab) opened a glass recycling plant in Swords, County Dublin. As part of the Rehab glass recycling project, there are 50 bottle banks around Dublin city, Most glass containers can be recycled apart from cups, window glass and Malibu bottles.
At the recycling bank, glass bottles must be deposited into the appropriately coloured conatiner, brown, green or clear. Over the Christmas period over 250 tonnes of bottles have been deposited.
When the bottle banks are full their contents are brought to the glass recycling plant. The bottles undergo a series of sorting processes. Sorters pick out brown bottles from green glass. Then broken glass moves along a conveyor belt where all caps, tops and lids are removed. The glass waste is sold to the Irish Glass Bottle company in Ringsend where it is made into new bottles.
The Rehabilitation Institute also recycles paper documents and computer paper from business corporations and banks. The sensitive nature of this paper means it is shredded before sorting. The paper must be clean and dry and white and coloured paper are recycled.
For Superquinn Managing Director Feargal Quinn recycling facilities provide job opportunities and have direct environmental benefits. He is keen to introduce recycling initiatives in response to customer requests.
In Walkinstown along with Minister of State at the Department of the Environment Mary Harney, Feargal Quinn launches the first plastic recycling service at a Superquinn store. Established in conjunction with Liz O'Brien of the Get Tallaght Working Co-Op, the plastic bank accepts all domestic plastic items. This waste will be sold to Superwood in Bray for recycling.
This episode of 'Cúrsaí’ was broadcast on 9 January 1990. The reporter is Seán Ó Méalóid.
