Dublin local authorities have launched a new recycling service for Dublin homes which aims to recycle up to 100 million Tetra Pak cartons every year.
Yesterday, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, launched the service whereby Dublin householders can now put the empty beverage cartons in their green bins,
Local authority officials believe the initiative has the potential to reduce the amount of waste going to Irish rubbish tips by up to 3,000 tonnes a year.
The new initiative will enable Dublin householders to place used milk, juice and drink cartons in their green bins for collection.
Recycling centres will also be accepting the waste, which has to be washed and flattened by the user before it is accepted.
The Tetra Pak waste will be baled at a special recycling facility in Clonshaugh, Dublin, from where it will be shipped in lorry loads to a paper mill in Scotland for processing.
The paper mill will extract the cardboard and paper material from the packaging, which will be used in various paper products.
The remaining waste, in the form of plastic and aluminium residue which accounts for a third of the a Tetra Pak carton, is currently being landfilled in Scotland.
The recycled paper from the cartons is being used to make various paper products, including envelopes and bags.
The factory, the Smith Anderson paper mill in Fife, an hour outside of Edinburgh, is the only facility in the UK or Ireland which can process the cartons.
It has the capacity to take most of the Tetra Pak waste generated in Ireland every year, which is estimated at 400 million cartons a year.
A modest recycling target this year of 8 per cent, or 32 million cartons, has been set by Repak, the State company responsible for subsidising recycling efforts through charges levied on firms producing packaging waste.
It is hoped that this will rise to over 100 million cartons as Dublin householders become more aware of it, and as more regions around the country begin separating the cartons.
Some 30 per cent of the make- up of Tetra Paks - in the form of aluminium foil and plastic - is not being recycled at the plant. This is being separated out, and is currently being sent to a nearby landfill.