Celbridge Tidy Towns Waste Minimisation Strategy for
2007
Waste minimisation was introduced in 2006 as a new category in the
Tidy Towns Competition in an effort to encourage Tidy Towns committees
and the communities that they support to get involved in projects that will
reduce waste and encourage recycling. Celbridge Tidy Towns has
thoroughly investigated our waste minimisation potential and has come up
with the following strategy for 2007. We feel confident that these initial
steps will lay a foundation that will create a greater environmental awareness
among not only our volunteers but also among all residents in Celbridge.
1) Waste Segregation Initiative
Celbridge Tidy Towns has both a summer and winter litter collection
schedule which consists of volunteers simply being supplied with a black
bag, gloves and litter-picking grabbers. During the summer there are both
Tuesday evening and Saturday morning clean-ups. During the winter we
operate a Sunday morning
volunteers in groups of 5-6 who rotate the cleaning of the
every 7 weeks. Our 5 approach roads are also covered during the winter by
smaller groups of 2-3 volunteers who live near each road who take turns
performing weekly clean-ups.
We have closely estimated that on an average two hour clean-up of
litter black spots around Celbridge involving 8-10 volunteers, that the litter
collected can weigh as much as 150 kilograms. That is approximately 15
black bags per collection with each bag weighing 10 kilograms.
Up until now the litter collected has been disposed, unsegregated, in
one of the following three ways:
1. in volunteers’ own household bin
2. black bags piled at collection point pre-arranged for
Kildare County Council to collect
3. Kildare County Council have also provided Ceibridge
Tidy Towns with dedicated bins of which we
currently have six, stored in volunteers homes but
exclusively for Ceibridge Tidy Towns use
The Tidy Towns Competition’s new emphasis on Waste Minimisation
has prompted us to create a simple and affordable yet highly effective
way to reduce our waste output by at least 40%. We have piloted a
programme, which involved the purchase of a 100-litre GardenViews
Multi-Barrow, inside which is placed two separate 50 litre bins.
(Please see enclosed photos.) The total cost for both the multi-barrow
and bins was 40 euro. This was astronomically less than the quotes we
obtained for similar trolleys to do the same job of over 1,000 euro
each! The smaller bins inside the multi-barrow are used to segregate
recyclable waste such as glass, cans and paper from non-recyclables.
We then use our own private household recycling bins to dispose of
paper and aluminum cans. All glass recovered is brought to our local
bring centre. In addition to fulfilling our waste segregation needs, the
multi-barrow also provides an ergonomic alternative to the normal
backbreaking “black-bag” approach to litter collection. The two-
wheeled multi-barrow carries up to 150 kilos and stands upright
unaided to allow volunteers to rest from time to time. It also allows
volunteers the extra space to take away larger items we encounter on
clean-ups, such as advertising posters, planks of wood and larger
sheets of cardboard.
The pilot programme has been very successful to date and our
volunteers are highly interested in an easier and more environmentally
friendly way of collecting litter and beautifying Celbridge. We hope
to secure funding to purchase at least 20 of these multi-barrows to
work toward a great level of waste minimisation for 2007.
2) Campaign to Create a Greater Public Awareness of
Local Recycling Facilities
In an effort to encourage the residents of Celbridge to recycle as
much of their household waste as possible, Celbridge Tidy Towns will
be conducting a campaign to inform the public about local recycling
facilities and the materials that the various bring centres recycle.
Celbridge currently has two main bring centres. One is located
on the grounds of the Celbridge GAA club. The other is in the car
park of the Setanta House Hotel. Both centres recycle glass and drinks
cans. There is also textile recycling in the car park of McNamee’s
Pub. Alternatively, we urge textiles and bric-a-brac to be taken to
either Mrs. Quin’s Charity Shop or St. Raphael’s Charity Shop to
ensure the most trustworthy allocation of such items. I recycle
regularly and only recently learned about the bring centre at the GAA
club so we feel it would be beneficial to present a comprehensive list
of recycling facilities in Celbridge to the public. Facilities, which even
fewer residents may know about, are the larger bring centres in the
area which are located in Kilcullen and Ballymount. These centres
offer a much greater range of cost-free recycling options including:
plastics, glass, paper, cardboard, drinks cans, textiles, batteries and
wood.
Ceibridge Tidy Towns plans to inform the residents of
Ceibridge about these facilities through various media. Firstly, one of
our volunteers has graciously offered to design and maintain a
Ceibridge Tidy Towns website. This website will be our main source
of communication and advertising and will come online in the next
two weeks. The internet will be a highly useful tool to educate
residents about waste minimisation by providing links to Bring Centre
webpages, where residents can explore what these facilities have to
offer. Also, links to websites such as RaceAgainstWaste.ie and
Enfo.ie can provide residents with other, more in-depth waste
minimisation strategies. We will also be using the Ceibridge Tidy
Towns website to post announcements regarding any updated
recycling news, such as the recently approved planning permission
which was granted to Tesco to construct a new store in Ceibridge, a
project that will include yet another Bring Centre. Because the
Ceibridge Tidy Towns website is new, we intend to publicise it
through such media outlets as the Open Door Parish Newsletter and
the Liffey Champion as well as the Celbridge.ie website, which is
maintained by Kildare County Council.
We feel that our most powerful tool in waste minimisation is
educating the general public and we are confident that this recycling
awareness campaign will help us to achieve the goal of increasing
recycling participation among the residents of Celbridge while
instilling a greater sense of environmental responsibility in both the
young and old.
3) Spring 2007 Composting Workshop
In keeping with the previous theme of reducing household
waste, Celbridge Tidy Towns plan to sponsor a composting workshop
in the spring of 2007. Although we have already been in discussions
with Kildare County Council’s Environmental Officer, Dara Wyer,
about the details of such a workshop, we will also work over the
quieter winter months to secure both a venue and representative to
conduct the workshop.
Recycling and waste minimisation are positive steps that we can take
to help the environment. Celbridge Tidy Towns have accepted the
new challenge presented by the Tidy Towns Competition to instill a
greater sense of environmental awareness in the community by
preaching the benefits of recycling while simultaneously practicing
what we preach. We encourage the residents of Celbridge to think
about the waste we create and take responsibility for what happens to
it.
Photos of Multi-barrow
On the next page are photos of the Multi-barrow and inner bins. These
photos were taken Sunday November 12th 2006. I was part of a crew
of four people who took part in the Sunday morning
cleaning between 7:3Oam-9am on that day. Of the litter you see in the
Multi-barrow, here is a breakdown of waste segregation for that day:
Total weight of litter I collected: 10 kilograms
Unrecyclable waste: 6 kilograms
Aluminum cans & paper: 2 kilograms
Glass: 2 kilograms
Therefore, I was able to recycle 40% of the litter I collected due to the
Multi-barrow. If I had only been carrying a black bag for collection, I
would have put all of the glass into the Kildare County Council bins
on the
would also have not segregated the cans and paper. So the
effectiveness of this programme is easy to see.
