Some 200 tonnes of the packaging material polystyrene are to diverted from landfill sites over the next year under a recycling scheme unveiled today.
Michael Horgan, Rehab
The scheme was announced in Navan, Co Meath, by Minister for the Environment John Gormley.
Rehab Recycle operates the new expanded polystyrene recycling service (EPS), which will handle the equivalent of 300 forty-foot containers of the packaging over the next 12 months.
EPS is most commonly used as a packaging material for electronic and electrical equipment and is known by a number of trade names such as Styrofoam and Aeroboard.
When it is reprocessed, the plastic from polystyrene can be used in products such as clothes hangers, CD cases and stationery.
A heat-reduction process will remove the air from the polystyrene leaving a recyclable plastic product.
Michael Horgan, director of enterprises with the Rehab Group, said: "Currently, there are very few options for companies or members of the public to dispose of expanded polystyrene.
"The product is not accepted in any green bin collection scheme in Ireland, and most civic amenity centres do not take it for recycling. Some people have no option but to place it in their general refuse bin."