Ireland recycled hundreds of thousands of electrical items in 2006, new figures show, with the recycling rate for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment almost doubling the target level set by Government.
The WEEE recycling scheme came into effect in August 2005 and has seen a total of 380,000 fridges and freezers, 570,000 large household appliances and 240,000 televisions, recycled.
In the past 12 months 134,000 fridges, almost 418,000 large household appliances and almost 139,000 televisions were recycled.
The WEEE directive aimed for 4kgs of WEEE recycled for each household by 2008 but to date the figures show each household has recycled 7.4kg.
Minister for the Environment John Gormley, said the figures offer great encouragement in advance of National Recycling Week, which starts on Monday.
"The public needs to be made aware that there are collection systems in place for the free take back of all WEEE," he said.
"Local authorities must take back all household WEEE deposited at their collection points free of charge and retailers must inform their customers not just of the one-for-one, like-for-like take back services they are obliged to provide, but also of the free take back service provided by local authorities," he added.
There have been 6.7 million WEEE items collected to date and 31,500 tonnes / 3.5 million units of household WEEE recycled.
"The challenge now is for producers to invest in an awareness programme to educate the public that electrical items should not be deposited in the household bin, but brought to a retailer or a local authority civic amenity facility for recycling," he said.