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WATCH: One million nappies and a live snake - here's what's been found in Irish recycling centres

In some urban areas, 40% of recycling can be contaminated.

Journal Media Studio / YouTube

“ONE OF THE strangest things we’ve come across would be a dead dog.”

“A live snake that a member of staff had to physically pick off the line.”

These are the words of Fergal Brennan and David Duff, both responsible for health and safety standards at Thorntons Recycling, one of 100 Repak-registered recycling operators across Ireland.

Before Repak was set up in 1997, Ireland ranked among some of the poorest countries in Europe for recycling – we only recycled 15% of our waste. Nowadays, that figure lies at 68%.

The problem? In some urban areas, 40% of that waste can arrive contaminated – the usual culprits are nappies and food waste (you can see full chicken fillets in the video above).

As Laura Sherry, Marketing and Communications Manager at Repak explains, these things have to be pulled out by people at the plant:

Along the picking line, people go through all of the rubbish to try to pick out contaminants – things that should really not go into the recycling bin: nappies, broken toys, food, soft plastics, electrical items, syringes, batteries and dead animals.

Nappies are a huge problem – it’s estimated that a million nappies go through Irish recycling centres every year, and one is enough to contaminate a whole truck worth of good quality recycling material. Sherry explains why:

You might think that placing one or two nappies in the recycling bin isn’t going to have a big effect, but thousands of people are doing it everyday. It has become a massive issue for the people who have to sort through it – no one should have to deal with human waste.

The second most common issue is food waste – mouldy by the time it hits recycling plants. “This tends to be tubs of salads, leftovers in pre-made dinner packaging, pizza left in boxes and even full chicken fillets which are a pure contaminant”, shares Sherry.

What you can do…

With Easter on the horizon, Sherry says that our waste generation is set to increase by 7% in comparison to last year: ”The challenges of packaging go up over Easter – people have family lunches and buy Easter eggs, so a lot more packaging is brought into the house.”

If you do find yourself recycling Easter egg packaging this year, Sherry reminds that the box and the rigid plastic around the edge of the egg can be recycled, while foil and the soft plastics from chocolate wrappers should go in your main bin.

As Sherry reminds, there are only five items that should go in the green bin – paper, cardboard, steel cans, aluminium cans and rigid plastics:

All other materials are contamination and cause significant issues for workers. You can always check Repak’s website if you’re unsure whether something goes in the recycling bin or not.

When you recycle this Easter, make sure you’re placing the right things in your recycle bin. Items such as nappies and mouldy food can contaminate an entire truck worth of recyclables – contaminating up to 40% in some urban areas. Find out exactly what you can recycle on Repak.ieRepak is a not for profit organisation established in 1997 and is the only government-approved packaging recycling compliance scheme. 

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