Are you sick of the amount of plastic and packaging coming into your home?
Milk cartons, cereal boxes, food packaging, junk mail, takeaway boxes – it can feel like we are locked in a cycle of creating a never-ending stream of rubbish. A new survey is looking for your help in stopping the flow.
A national recycling bin survey, running for the next two weeks, aims to find out what exactly is in our bins and who else must shoulder responsibility for it.
“For too long, the blame for waste reduction has been on consumer behaviour, but maybe we need to look further upstream,” says environmental charity Voice Ireland, which is running the survey.
Plastic made up 50 per cent of the average Irish recycling bin, according to the same survey carried out in 2023. Doing a deep dive into their recycling bins, participating householders in Ireland catalogued more than 10,000 individual items.
Supermarkets were responsible for two-thirds of all packaging waste, according to the citizen research group.
“This means the problem isn’t just individual behaviour – it’s what’s being put on our shelves in the first place,” Voice Ireland concluded.
“The survey aims to flip the script and look at the source of packaging waste – retailers and producers – so we can push for changes that actually reduce waste at the design and distribution stages,” it says.
Beginning on June 15th, households are invited to collect two full weeks of data, ending on June 30th.
This entails counting and recording the packing in your household recycling bin, and noting where the items came from, for example the supermarket or takeaways.
There are two ways to take part. Simply use your recycling bin as usual for the next two weeks, then you can either spill out your recycling the day before collection and take a user-friendly online survey on your phone to record the items in it. Alternatively, you can use the special ‘tally as you go’ sheet to record the items you are recycling in real time.
Collecting information like this is not just helping to shift all the blame from consumers, the data can also inform better policymaking.
Some things have changed since the last survey. The deposit return scheme means some plastic bottles and cans are being recycled differently.
The European Union Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) will require actual reductions in packaging, not just changes in how we recycle it. By 2030, certain types of single-use plastic packaging – such as those for unprocessed fruit and vegetables – will be banned.
These changes are a step in the right direction – but without independent, citizen-led data, it’s hard to measure their real impact or make the case for going further, says Voice Ireland.
Even though in Ireland we’re recycling more than ever by weight, our overall recycling rate isn’t improving – because our packaging consumption is growing 2½ times faster. That’s why it’s so important to track what’s really happening on the ground, the charity says.
Participating in this survey over the next two weeks is a small commitment, but it can have a big impact.
People who are willing to look in their bins are helping to ask tough questions and build pressure for real change.
Oh, and those who complete the survey will be in with a chance to win one of five €100 One4All gift vouchers.
You can sign up at VoiceIreland.org
