When James Gandon designed a seaside villa in Sandymount nearly 200 years ago, he could hardly have imagined that his name would ultimately be borrowed by the Rehab group as a corporate title for the diverse business ventures it now operates under its wing.
Gandon Enterprises Ltd, with its headquarters in the restored Georgian villa, is Ireland's largest employer of disabled people. A "not-for-profit" group, it comprises seven companies ranging from food and clothing to electronics and recycling, with an annual turnover of almost £9 million.
Gandon's commercial ventures were set up in 1995 as part of a State-sponsored pilot project to provide sustainable jobs for people with disabilities a sector where unemployment runs as high as 80 per cent. Some 180 of its 350 staff are in this category.
According to Ms Gina Quin, Gandon's chief executive, it has been "hugely successful" in providing employment for disabled people at a net cost of just £145 per annum per job, after taking account of savings in social welfare payments and increased tax receipts, compared to £10,000 per job for IDA-backed schemes.
Gandon Enterprises Ltd includes: Galway Corrugated Cases; Hats of Ireland, based in Castlebar; Harrisons of Tallaght, which makes jams and handmade biscuits; Response Electronics in Limerick; Connect Industries in Galway, another electronics specialist; and Precision Workwear in Navan, which makes protective clothing.
Long before Gandon was formally established, its flagship project, Rehab Recycling, had already become Ireland's largest recycling company. Set up in 1984, it was a pioneer in this area and now operates about 600 recycling sites throughout the Republic where people can bring bottles, cans and textiles.
Since 1984, the rate of glass recycling has soared from 7 per cent to 46 per cent, amounting to a record total in 1997 of 15,600 tonnes, equivalent to 47 million bottles and jars. And the potential for further expansion is clear, given that Ireland ranks 12th in a European league table of 17 for glass recycling.
"We are well aware of the tremendous desire among the public to see greater levels of recycling," Ms Quin says. She would like to see recycling sites established in all supermarket and public carparks and have the facilities provided at all shopping centres and housing estates "as a matter of course".
In addition, she believes that there is "enormous scope" for enhanced recycling sites on street locations, in line with common practice in other European countries. Such smaller recycling sites could greatly improve the convenience of recycling and the amount of material collected, according to Ms Quin.
Rehab plans to install a further 100 recycling sites and to expand its involvement in community-based waste reduction initiatives. It is particularly keen to establish centres where the public can bring various recyclable wastes as well as bulky items which cannot be handled by normal collections.
Ms Quin said the recent MCCK consultancy study of waste management in the Dublin region, stressed the importance of recycling in overcoming the problem of providing new landfill sites. There was also an impetus to comply with the 1996 Waste Management Act and EU directives on recycling.
Rehab sees an opportunity to expand on foot of the MCCK report. It recommended that recycling banks should be extended, especially in the inner city, and that 10 purpose-built recycling centres should be established throughout the Dublin area. (It also proposed that the city should have a municipal incinerator).
"Rehab Recycling would be delighted to work with local authorities in operating the proposed 10 new recycling centres in the Dublin region," Ms Quin says. Indeed, she sees the group as "ideally placed" to grow with Ireland's environmental needs, building on its experience of working with local councils.
Recently, consultants M.C. O'Sullivan recommended intensifying the provision of recycling sites in Galway city and county as part of a strategy to maximise recycling and minimise dumping. With 80 per cent of the Republic's recycling sites under its belt, Rehab is well-placed to support such waste management policies.
Rehab reckons that the "bring" system, whereby members of the public physically bring materials to a central facility, is by far the most efficient and cost-effective form of recycling. It works out at a net cost of around £20 per tonne compared to a net cost of around £140 per tonne for house-to-house collections, such as Kerbside.
Even so, recycling is not cheap. Both Government and industry need to be prepared to fund recycling if the levels set by waste management legislation are to be achieved, because many materials have little or no value when recycled. Newsprint is a particular problem because of the cheap price of virgin pulp.
Rehab has its critics, however. Working conditions at its plant in Santry, where glass is crushed into cullet, have been described as "primitive". This is why the group is planning to build a new cullet plant in Ballymount, on a site provided by South Dublin County Council next door to its own waste baling station.
Ms Quin says grant-aid had been secured from the Department of the Environment, but she is still awaiting confirmation of further funding from Repak, the IBEC-sponsored recycling initiative. She also admits that Rehab workers, both disabled and able-bodied, are on low-pay generally receiving less than £4 per hour. Bottle banks, too, can often be unsightly, with rubbish accumulating around them. "Problems arise because the sites are too full, but this could be solved by installing more sites to create greater capacity," she says. "We work closely with local authorities to ensure that any untidy sites are cleared up as soon as possible."
But whether it's recycling bottles or making hats and jams, Ms Quin believes the benefits of Gandon Enterprises in human terms are the most important. She says: "We are the first business in the world with a truly integrated workforce where able-bodied and disabled people working as equals in a commercially viable company."
