Pepsi and Fanta cans transformed into table lamps, carrier bags made out of sheets of biscuit tin, toy trains moulded out of old engine spark plugs . . . . with many gifts to choose from, Galway's Greene Corner should be thriving. Alas, it may be closing down.
The recyclers' paradise in Cross Street, which was initiated by potter Judy Greene several years ago, has a lease sign over the door, and is currently selling off its stock at half-price. Most of the goods have to be sourced abroad - in Nepal, Zimbabwe, France, Germany. Ingenious ideas, like old light bulbs turned into oil lamps, haven't been running out the door, with prospective buyers often unaware of the fact that these are handcrafted goods.
Once pockets are filled with more disposable income, it seems, there is a collective determination to buy "new, new, new". For a while, at least. With Galway still holding the dubious distinction of being the State's fastest growing city, it could speak worrying volumes about the city's direction.
Gene Browne, director of Galway's award-winning City Bin Company and City Recycling Company, isn't the least bit surprised at the waning interest - even at a time when there has never been more public concern about waste and what to do with it.
"The term `recycling' has been hijacked, and people really don't understand what it is all about," he says. "There is an optimum level of recycling, in our experience, and after that it is just not economic."
Established over three years ago by both Browne and Glenn Ward, the business was overall winner of the Junior Chamber/Price Waterhouse Coopers 1999/2000 Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and was runner-up in the Galway Chamber of Commerce/Ernst and Young Business of the Year competition.
It has also achieved ISO 9002 accreditation - the first waste contractor to do so, they say, and within 10 months of start up. It employs eight full-time, and three part-time staff, and is extending its waste contracting business to Dublin, Limerick and Cork.
When it was initiated, Galway was the most under-developed waste disposal market in the State, with only two private contractors covering the whole city and hinterland. During 1998, the City Bin Company approached Rehab Recycling Partnership with a plan to combine resources and collect glass bottles from licensed premises.
Now, some 93 per cent of the city's vintners recycle glass with the company, and it is currently in discussion with Clare and Meath county councils with a view to setting up a similar system there. More than 3,000 tonnes of glass is being recovered from the Galway waste stream annually, and the initiative employs four people. Cardboard is also recycled, with content being bailed and shipped to Smurfits in Dublin.
"We deal only with businesses, not with private individuals, and the one question asked of us constantly is how much it is going to cost," Browne says. "Most of the big recycling markets are in Asia, and parts of Europe, and it is not practical to think in terms of disposing everything in this way."
HE has no official views on the debate raging in Connacht over a thermal treatment plant. "Personally speaking, I think that well-run thermal treatment plants have a part to play, and there is a big difference between the incinerators of 20 years ago and the thermal treatment system now.
"The problem is that if a plant is built here, it will have to be fed. It will represent direct competition for recycling, as it needs waste to keep it running. And so it will be a cop-out, in terms of the recycling option which local authorities are committed to."
