Consumers have been urged to recycle the 163 million bottles, cans and plastic containers used to package the 64 Olympic-sized swimming pools of drink that will be consumed over the Christmas period.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dick Roche, said the holiday period is the "perfect time to get into the race against waste at home".
"A growing number of materials can now be recycled, such as paper, cardboard, cans, plastic bottles and milk and juice cartons, as well as glass bottles and jars," Mr Roche said.
The chief executive of Repak, the not-for-profit Government and industry backed recycling group, said this Christmas season was the first holiday period during which householders would face pay-per-use bin charges.
"By recycling all their used Christmas packaging, reusing where possible and starting to compost, householders could cut by half the amount of waste they leave in their regular bins," he said. Celebrating Christmas did not have to be an expensive time for the environment. With the recent growth in recycling collection facilities recycling had never been easier, he added.
Repak estimates that every Irish household will, on average, drink 11 litres of wine, 18 litres of beer, 1.5 litres of spirits and 44 litres of soft drinks. This will result in some 163 million of waste beverage containers.
It also estimates that each household will consume an average of two kilos of sweets and chocolates, which will leave four million cardboard sweet boxes. Some 2.5 million cardboard toy boxes will also be left over after Christmas along with four million rolls of wrapping paper. In total, each household will produce 15.5 kilos of waste.
The Christmas campaign and extended opening hours at the 80 Repak centres around the country will run from today to January 10th. Members of the public can also bring items for recycling to the existing near 2,000-strong network of Bring centres.
