Recycle IT – Working with COVID-19 Level 5

Overview

Following a recent Cabinet meeting the Government has decided to take further measures in an effort to stop the spread of Covid-19. All counties in Ireland will be at Level 5 from midnight on Wednesday October 21st 2020. This follows the measures were already in place.

Based on Government decisions all counties will be at Level 5 throughout November 2020 with the restrictions remaining in place for a period of 6 weeks. The situation will be continually reviewed by the Government, based on the status of the virus and public health advice.

COVID 19

The priority is to keep schools, early learning and childcare services open and minimise disruption to essential services. This means that some services will be moved online and some businesses will be closed. You can learn more by clicking here.

Recycling with Recycle IT

Recycle IT plan to remain open for electrical, electronic and pure metal recycling during Level 5 of the Plan for Living with Covid-19. Electrical recycling services will continue in Dublin City and County during the duration of Level 5.

Recycle IT will be unable to offer our personal collection service due to capacity restrictions. We will continue to service organisations, schools, community group and charities. We will be open for electrical, electronic and pure metal recycling drop off. You will find our address and a location map here.

COVID-19 Public Health Advice

Some of our staff team will be able to work from home. Others delivering services directly to the public with be working safely from our facility in Clondalkin, Dublin 22. The team will following all health and safety guidelines with a focus on those specific to COVID 19. Team members will have there temperature recorded daily with hand washing, hand sanitization and social distancing a priority.

Phone calls will be answered during the hours of 9.30 am and 3.30 pm. Email is the best form of communication and will be monitored Monday to Friday from 9 am and 5 pm.

Help Prevent COVID 19

If you wish to avail of an electrical recycling collection for your school or community group in Dublin Recycle IT will make every effort to support.

It is worth noting all items for recycling will need to be accessible, disconnected and ready for collection. Recycle IT teams will be following social distancing guidelines. They are happy to collect the electronic and electrical equipment from drives, parking areas, outside common areas and other accessible & clear external location. We ask recyclers to remain mindful of social distancing and hand hygiene guidelines when recycling.

If you need further information on COVID 19 updates are available on the HSE-HPSC Website (updated daily at 12 noon) together with guidance and other relevant information.

About Recycle IT

Recycle IT, is an award-winning social enterprise offering electrical, electronic and metal recycling services through drop off and collection. Services are provided in partnership with WEEE Ireland and South Dublin County Council.

Recycle IT are supported by the Department of Rural and Community Development, Pobal and Dormant Accounts and authorised by the National Waste Collection Permit Office and the local authorities across in Leinster.

For more information on Recycle IT please call 01 4578321, email info@recycleit.ie or visit our website www.recycleit.ie

Truck with Recycle IT Logo

Halloween 2020 – Think Reuse!

Seasonal Festive 

October is reuse month in Ireland and Halloween is an the end of October so we are hoping to might consider resuing this Halloween!

This year Halloween will be on a Saturday, October 31 2020. It is the day before All Saints’ Day and is also sometimes called All Hallows’ Eve.

This celebration originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, festive gatherings, donning costumes and eating sweet treats.

Halloween 2020 Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Children, as we know, get very excited and love this time of the year! They keep asking how many weeks left until Halloween?  They love fancy dress, trick or treat visits and a toffee apple or two. This year however due to health and safety Halloween will need to be celebrated slightly differently with social distancing and hand hygiene in mind but lots of fun can still be achieved.

The Challenge

The one ongoing and yearly challenge with the celebration of Halloweens witches, ghosts and the undead is the tonnes of extra waste which is created.

Eco Halloween

Halloween might be a fun time for the family and a good sales opportunity for businesses, but it’s not great for our planet or environment. It helps create tonnes of food waste, mountains of cheap plastic accessories and decorations and bags of never worn again costumes.

The National Geographic Society reports that plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental issues, and the rapidly increasing production of disposable plastic products has overwhelmed the world’s ability to deal with them.

Did you know, plastic production increased exponentially, from 2.3 million tons in 1950 to 448 million tons by 2015. Production is expected to double again by 2050.

Halloween is a time when we could make a decision to go plastic-free, with no plastic sweet wrappers, not plastic decorations, no plastic bags and no plastic costumes. We could even go a step further and reduce the amount of sweet consumed!!

According to the Environmental Protection Agency people living in Ireland produce over 15 million tonnes of waste every year. We do this in our homes, our places of work and while undertaking leisure activities such as Halloween events. In 2016, each person living in Ireland produced, on average, 580 kg of municipal waste. This is well above the European average of 487 kg, and this type of waste is particularly difficult to recycle.

It is a real mixture of materials just dropped in the bin; do you think about how you dispose of your waste?

Halloween 2020 Pumpkins

Here are 15 simple tips to help this year 

1: Don’t buy plastic trick-or-treat bags – how about using an old pillowcase.

2: Make the costume at home. 

3: Host a local kids costume swap party prior to Halloween. 

4: Reuse, repurpose or donate old costumes to a charity shop

5: Cut down on sweet treats and particularly sweets in single wrappers. 

6: Bake your treats or make toffee apples at home. 

7: Fruit treats are an excellent idea for Halloween.

8: Eliminate plastic decorations. 

9: Use biodegradable or reusable plates and cups. 

10: Provide homemade finger foods and treats that can be eaten without plates.

11: Dispose of your pumpkin responsibly by composting and feeding to animals.

12: Stay local when trick or treating – no carbon miles required.

13: Use LED mains powered lights rather than battery operated lights 

14: Avoid mass-produced plastic items sold for a euro – it’s waste waiting to happen! 

15: Don’t buy any new bits to decorate the house, use existing items. 

16: If you do buy decorations, buy second hand for reuse! 

Finally 

You don’t immediately think ‘zero-waste’ when you think about Halloween, but if you plan ahead and consider the above tips, you can have a lower-waste Halloween than last year.

Reused Halloween Lights

Please do enjoy your socially distance Halloween,, and if you do decide to go out for a walk on the night stay safe, visible and keep the hand clean.

About Recycle IT

Recycle IT is an award-winning social enterprise providing a community, personal and business collection service for all types of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in Dublin and surrounding counties.

During 2018 Recycle IT offered to drop off and collection services to tens of thousands of homes, schools, charities and businesses across Dublin and surrounding areas collecting a range of WEEE which includes thousands of computers, cables, monitors, microwaves and screens

Recycle IT services are provided in partnership with WEEE Ireland. Recycle IT is supported by Pobal, Dormant Accounts, South Dublin County Council and authorized by the National Waste Collection Permit Office and the local authorities across Leinster.

Recycle IT – JCI Award Winner 2019

Recycling Plastics From Electronic Waste

The European Commission estimates e-waste to be one of the fastest growing waste streams in the EU, and expects it to grow to more than 12 million tonnes by the end of 2020. Waste electrical and electronic equipment is a complex mixture of materials and components. This type of waste has hazardous content, and if not effectively managed, can be detrimental to the environmental and lead to health problems. We also note, the production of modern electronics requires the use of a variety of scarce and expensive resources.

As we have increased usage it seems plastics are a key element in making many different components of electronic and electrical products, including phones, computers, laptops, tablets, TVs, screens, toys, vacuum cleaners, hairdryers, and larger household appliances. Plastic are a concern as there any may differ types used which makes easy recycling difficult.

Plastic Coated Electronic Cables

There is a lot of time, energy, effort and money invested to improve the collection and recycling of plastics found in electronic waste (e-waste) but research by PloyCE suggest the plastics value chain is still too fragmented, and recycled plastics are still perceived as unattractive to the end-user.

A New Project

PolyCE is a project funded by the European Commission and consists of 20 partner organisations aiming to address the problem plastic waste relate to electronic equipment during the next 4 years. The idea is to greatly reduce the use of virgin plastics and enhancing the use of recycled plastics in new electronics of all types.

A potential roadblock is the classifying of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) plastics as “hazardous waste” This step risks making EU recycling of WEEE plastics impossible.

Plastics Value Chain – Click above to access full size diagram

The POLYCE Newsletter from March 2020 states, most of WEEE plastics are high value tech plastics and technology exists in the EU to produce REACH and RoHS compliant Post-Consumer Recycled plastics and ensure safe plastic recycling. A small proportion of these WEEE plastics is compounded with flame retardant substances. Only a limited number of these Flame Retardants are restricted as Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).

Opportunity

Recycling plastic of al types is a great opportunity to improve environmental wellbeing. Envirotec magazine says recycling electronic related plastic would reduce pressure on waste systems in Europe where approx 31% of plastic waste still enters landfills while 39% is incinerated. Another benefit comes with very tonne of plastic recycled helps avoid up to 3 tonnes of CO2 emissions created making new plastic.

Consumer of the Products?

A recent consumer survey carried out by the PolyCE project found that half of respondents did not know if they had ever bought a tech product that included recycled plastic. Of the 25% who said yes to the question, 86% noticed no difference in quality, appearance, or performance of the product they purchased.

Plastic Backs on Monitors and TVs

While there is a growing awareness amongst people around the globe regarding the threats posed by everyday plastic waste, very little attention is given to the challenges of the waste plastic found in electronic devices used daily.

Do you know if you have purchased a phone, tablet or any electronic item manufactured with recycled plastic. Maybe next time you can check and request this option!

Moving Forward

At present plastics are needed for manufacturing the many different components of electronic and electrical products, experts in the PolyCE network said products can be designed in ways that make material recovery of plastic components easier. This will take some time to achieve so during that time please ensure your old electronic items are recycled using a permitted recycler. The current system might not be perfect, but it will develop and change!

For more information on this electronic plastic recycling project click here or visit the BBC website.

About Recycle IT

Recycle IT, is an award-winning social enterprise offering electrical, electronic and metal recycling services through drop off and collection. Services are provided in partnership with WEEE Ireland and South Dublin County Council.

Recycle IT are supported by the Department of Rural and Community Development, Pobal and Dormant Accounts and authorised by the National Waste Collection Permit Office and the local authorities across in Leinster.

For more information on Recycle IT please call 01 4578321, email info@recycleit.ie or visit our website www.recycleit.ie

School Recycling Collections….are back

Free Collection Service

Schools, colleges, and training organizations located in Dublin and surronding areas now have the opportunity to recycle old and once valued electrical, electronic and pure metal equipment. If you need to declutter and create space recycling safely can help.

The service is offered free and is dedicated to reducing large amounts of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) which accumulates in classrooms, canteens, stores, and labs over time.

Unused Electronic Equipment – Recycle IT

Recycle IT, is a community based social enterprise, offering a simple and efficient route to recycle disused electrical and electronic items. After collection, items are broken down and recovered materials are processed for use in the manufacture of a new product. Your recycling helps sustain our organization and create employment and training opportunities.

The free collection service helps safely divert e-waste from landfill and makes use of old items that may have been thrown away. The types of items usually collected include computers, kitchen equipment, phone systems, mobile phones, laptops, tablets, monitors, projectors, printers, battery-operated toys, televisions, and radios. Please click here for a full list 

School Printers – Recycle IT

Schools, Community and Fundraising 

Our school’s collection service is organised as part of our free community collection service. We also support WEEE Ireland with collections of batteries from schools around Dublin which in turn supports the work of LauraLynn Children’s Hospice.

During the last 18 months, we worked with hundreds of schools, colleges, and training organizations all over Dublin and saw an overall increase in electrical equipment collected for recycling with a similar trend in 2019.

During 2020 after a period away from work our team returned and now worked within the COVID 19 guidelines to operate our recycling service safely.

We encourage students, parents, and teachers to get involved by taking in once loved electrical items from home (WEEE to School Day). We promote these type of initiatives to increase awareness of electrical recycling and encourage the next generation to recycle as a norm. Recycling electrical equipment might also help your school achieve or maintain your valued Green Flag

WEEE Ireland Logo

Register an interest

Schools, colleges and trainers wishing to register or schedule a collection simply need to complete a registration form by clicking here or call our team on 01 4578321 between 9am and 3pm, Monday – Friday. Once you call or email we can help you plan and schedule your e-waste collection.

For more information about Recycle IT please click here.

About Recycle IT

Recycle IT is an award-winning, not for profit, social enterprise established to create employment and promote environmental awareness through recycling and reuse. We work in partnership with WEEE Ireland and are authorized by your local authority to provide electrical, electronic and pure metal recycling collections across Dublin since 2007. Recycle IT are fully compliant for WEEE collection with permit detail available here.

Recycle IT – Commended for Corporate Social Responsibility

45 Easy Reuse Tips

Some Tips for 2020!

For generations in Ireland and across Europe thrift was one of the main reasons for reuse. Reuse saved money, time, energy and space. Reuse limits the need to source and use new natural resources, such as wood, oil, ore fibres and more!

It is always best to reduce first, then reuse and as a last resort, recycle. Reuse is distinct from recycling as items are diverted from waste for reuse. Reuse can include the product current use or a new use.

In the developing world, it’s still the case and leads to very high levels of reuse.  In Ireland as in other developed countries rising wages and greater consumer purchasing power has increased demand for convenience products.

Sometimes needs drive reuse with socks and other cloth items now reshaped and reuses as face masks to protect against the spread of COVID 19 and with lots of coffee shops, closed people are reusing cups and mugs over and over again. (might catch on!).

Water Bottle Reuse – Recycle IT

 

Convenience products have helped us undervalue reuse in favour of disposal or recycling.  Recycling is positive and has great benefits but uses resources including time, human capital and natural resources (e.g. fuel) to get the items to locations where they can be recycled effectively. Reuse is preferable!

If you can reuse an item yourself, it can help save money, save time, and the environment. Reuse helps reduced CO2 emissions and the mining of new raw materials.  Reuse can be a matter of thinking a little differently and figuring out how old milk cartons, cans, bags, bicycles, tires, packing or wood maybe reuse to match your needs. Reuse will truly find a new life for items around your home or workplace.

We created some reuse tips for reuse month in October. We have now updated the list for Reuse Month 2020 – Have a read and see what you can do!

Bicycle Reuse

45 Tips 

1. Use rechargeable batteries, toys and gadgets to avoid single-use batteries.
2. Redecorating, consider painting the kitchen and furniture for reuse. 
3. Create reusable lunch boxes or storage containers from large plastic ice cream tubs.
4. Replacing an old bike, offer it for reuse to schools, colleges or charities. 
5. After a picnic or BBQ, wash and save plastic knives, forks and spoons then store for your next outdoor event.
6. Reuse large plastic milk container to water garden plants rather than a hose: pierce small holes in the top side of the container and fill with water for slow, steady and simple watering.
7. Harvest seeds from fruit and vegetables and try to grow them!
8. Use paper egg cartons or toilet paper tubes (both are biodegradable) to start growing seeds into plants. They can be dropped right into the soil once strong enough.
9. Turn toilet rolls or paper towel tubes into playthings for children or nesting materials for your small pets.
10. Create egg carton crafts or offer egg cartons for reuse by local egg producers.
11. Store printed pictures and photos in poly pockets to reduce the ageing effects from humidity, damp and light.
12. Use old wine corks to create a floating key ring; your keys won’t sinking while at the pool, beach or lake.
13. Use a 2-litre plastic bottle to create a bird feeder.
14. Used cold bacon fat in a tuna or cat food tin to feed you, feathered friends, just hang from a tree or post in the garden.
15. Put old newspaper under a tablecloth to offer protection against spills.
16. Clean your window on Monday with Sundays newspapers (instead of paper towel)
17. Place an open jar or bowl of dried, used coffee grounds in your refrigerator or freezer to neutralize odours.
18. Keep a jar of dried, used coffee grounds to use with washing up liquid. It acts as a scouring agent for baked-on food
19. Placed used coffee grounds in a ring around garden plants to keep bugs and slugs away.
20. Refresh your eyes fresh with chilled and dampened tea bags taken from the fridge.
21. Cut old bike tire tubes tube into strips to make rubber bands in custom sizes.
22. Cut or shred paper or thin card into eco-friendly packing material for presents or parcels.
23. As kids outgrow colouring pencils, pens and art supplies try donating them to your local school.
24. Empty bottles, sweet boxes and biscuit tins can be used as small screw holders, toolboxes, sewing kit or cake holders.
25. Collect old soap ends into stocking leg and keep by an outdoor tap, ensuring you have hand wash for outside use.
26. Cut up old t-shirts and use them to clean up messy spills around the house and in the garage.
27. Used an old adult t-shirt as painting overalls for your kids – saves washing clothes.
28. Old tights make great rags for cleaning, dusting and shining
29. Old tights can be reused as sleeves for storing posters, wallpaper rolls, wrapping paper or anything else that needs to stay rolled up.
30. Cut the legs of old jeans to make super cool shorts for summer.
31. Use banana peels to shine your shoes. Rub the inside of the peel on shoes, then shine with a soft cloth.
32. Turn bread heals into breadcrumbs once dried out. Just blitz.
33. Use the peels of juiced lemons and limes to make zest and twists, which can be dried or frozen for later use.
34. Use juiced citrus fruit halves sprinkled with salt to clean stainless steel and other metal fixtures.
35. Add a piece of orange peel to brown sugar to ensure it stays soft.
36. Don’t throw away half-used copy books, up-cycle into kid’s drawing books.
37. Unravel woollen jumpers and knit something new for you!
38. Reused material from 3 or 4 broken umbrellas to assemble a retro-style rain poncho.
39. Jars can be cleaned and used to store homemade jams, preserves or even as a desk organizer for pens, paper clips or pencils.
40. Save old toothbrushes to scrub hard to reach places, like grout, sinks or behind water taps.
41. Collect broken china to re-tile outdoor tables, flower pots or paths.
42. Hang old clothes drawers or washing machine drums on the wall to create shelves or used them as storage boxes.
43. Food tins and plastic fruit containers can be reused for the planting and growing flower and herbs. 
44. Reuse water from washing and/or cooking vegetables to water plants internally and externally.
45. Old or unused shaving or makeup bags can be reused as a sturdy pen, pencil and marker bags for children (allows kids to keep drawing stuff all in one place!).

About Recycle IT

Recycle IT, is an award-winning social enterprise offering electrical, electronic and metal recycling services through drop off and collection. Services are provided in partnership with WEEE Ireland and South Dublin County Council.

Recycle IT are supported by the Department of Rural and Community Development, Pobal and Dormant Accounts and authorised by the National Waste Collection Permit Office and the local authorities across in Leinster.

For more information on Recycle IT please call 01 4578321, email info@recycleit.ie or visit our website www.recycleit.ie

Van with Recycle IT Logo