What to get out of the kitchen
"Recycle More - Get Out of the Kitchen" is the theme of this year's Repak Recycling Week, which runs from Monday to Sunday, October 12th. Recent research has shown that, although people are getting better about recycling materials from the kitchen, they are still unaware of what can be recycled from other rooms of the house, for example shampoo bottles, deodorant cans, and plastic packaging from children's toys.
To emphasise just how much can be recycled from different rooms in your house, a green bin designed to look like a doll's house, highlighting the products that can be recycled from each room, will be in situ at Enfo, 17 St Andrew Street, Dublin 2, throughout October. Repak is also running recycling awareness campaigns with local authorities, schools and libraries next week. And, if you're walking down Grafton Street in Dublin, check out artist Robert Bradford's giant sculpture made out of recycled materials, which has very recently gone up in BT2's window.
See www.repak.ie to calculate your carbon footprint and find out where your nearest bring centres are.
Tree Day coming up
The native Irish alder tree will be celebrated on Tree Day on Thursday, with thousands of primary-school children partaking in guided woodland walks at more than 120 locations throughout Ireland.
Tree Day is organised by the Tree Council of Ireland, whose website (www.treecouncil.ie) has worksheets for all primary-school classes as well as an interesting register of remarkable trees around Ireland. There will be free guided walks exploring the remarkable trees both in the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin, Dublin, and in Kilmacurragh Arboretum, Co Wicklow, on Thursday at 2.30pm.
The Comhar carbon issues
Comhar, the sustainable development council, recommends the introduction of a carbon tax in the forthcoming budget. "The incentive for introducing a carbon tax to transport, agricultural, residential and heat and services sectors has been strengthened because of the economic downturn," says Dr Lisa Ryan, director of research at Comhar. "Also, the recent revelations that Ireland's carbon emissions from transport and agriculture are going to be far higher than previously expected means that we need to act now."
According to Comhar, if revenues raised through a carbon tax were re-invested in three key areas (reducing income tax and enhancing competitiveness; compensating low-income groups and eliminating fuel poverty; and investing in further greenhouse gas emissions saving activities), the result would be economic growth. See www.comharsdc.ie
Trees in the frame
"Irish Trees and Hedgerows" is the theme of the annual amateur photography competition run by the broadleaf charity Crann. Traditional or digital prints are acceptable but manipulation or enhancement of images is not allowed. The closing date is October 31st. More details on 01-6275075, www.crann.ie.
ECOWEB
www.globalactionplan.ie
The Global Action Plan offers communities a model to develop local solutions to environmental problems. This week, the Ballymun-based group has launched new projects in communities in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. Check out this website to see how ideas were transformed into action.
