Repak, the waste packaging compliance scheme voluntarily agreed between industry and the Department of the Environment, is to invest €3.9 million over the next two years in setting up 850 new "bring sites" throughout the country.
This will facilitate the collection of a further 26,000 tonnes of packaging waste annually, equivalent to almost 10 per cent of the Republic's 2002 national recycling target, its chief executive, Mr Andrew Hetherington, told a conference of local authority representatives in Dublin yesterday.
Industry was investing substantial resources in the strategy, he said, "to make it easier for householders to engage in recycling". The initiative would increase the number of "bring bank" sites by 70 per cent.
"Although Repak met Ireland's 2001 target of recycling 200,000 tonnes of packaging waste, much more will have to be done to meet our national targets for 2005 of 450,000 tonnes, which represents 50 per cent of the Republic's packaging waste," Mr Hetherington said.
Repak, a not-for-profit company, was established in 1997 in response to the environmental obligations placed on Ireland under the 1994 EU directive on packaging and packaging waste.
Repak is currently the only approved compliance scheme under the Waste Management (Packaging) Regulations 1997.