CONSUMERS ARE being asked to offset their chocolate munching guilt this weekend by making an extra effort to recycle over the Easter period.
An estimated 6.4 million Easter eggs will be eaten this weekend and consumers will spend in the region of €32 million on confectionery over the festive period.
The recycling body Repak said that by recycling foil, plastic and cardboard packaging from Easter eggs, consumers could save more than 800 tonnes of carbon from being released into the atmosphere, the equivalent of burning more than 20,000 bags of coal.
Darrell Crowe of Repak said householders could easily embrace the spirit of recycling this Easter by giving a new life to their old packaging.
"We understand that Easter is a time for celebration and present-giving, but we are asking people to take a more environmentally friendly approach to the recycling of all the additional packaging that we see at this time."
He added that the plastic moulds used in Easter egg packaging are accepted into most plastic collection schemes.
Repak estimates that some seven million beverage cans and two million bottles of wine will consumed between Good Friday and Easter Monday.
Overall, the Easter festivities will generate more than 42,000 tonnes of packaging and Repak is aiming to recycle 17,000 tonnes of this. If achieved this will see 22,000 tonnes of carbon being saved - the equivalent of taking 12,000 cars off the roads.
Last year more than 16,000 tonnes or 40 per cent of all used packaging was recycled during the Easter period, which represented a 14 per cent increase on 2006.
