The Republic is now recycling more than twice the estimated weight of its population each year. In 2006 the materials included:
Some 111,283 tonnes of glass - enough to create a giant glass marble 100m in diameter or 214 million wine bottles
276,507 tonnes of paper and cardboard which equates to 3.7 billion cereal boxes
52,841 tonnes of plastic, equivalent to 1.5 billion plastic bottles, enough to create a line of bottles almost 45 times the diameter of the Earth
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111,047 tonnes of wood was recycled - enough wood to make 163 million hurling sticks
47,980 tonnes of steel, equivalent to 1.25 billion food cans
3,567 tonnes of aluminium, equivalent to 214 million beverage cans
Tim O'Brien