One Tonne a Day Keeps the Litter at Bay
A tonne of glass a day is deposited in Leixlip’s two bottle and can banks, at Lidl and Leixlip Amenities Centre, according to the latest figures, provided to Leixlip Tidy Town Association by Dara Wyer, Kildare County Council’s Environmental Awareness Officer.
Last year a total of 369 tonnes was deposited at the town’s bottle banks at Lidl and Leixlip Amenities Centre. About 90% was deposited at Lidl.This translates as one tonne of glass per day in the town, or one Imperial pound weight per person per week, based on the last (2006) census figures.
In addition, almost three tonnes of cans were deposited in the same place - that’s equivalent to about 300,000 of the popular sized beer cans find their way into Rehab’s banks. As the fortnightly collected domestic recycling bins are also used for getting rid of cans, perhaps as many more are collected there. In addition, many of the pubs and hotels have their own bottle and can recycling facilities.
Just over two tonnes of textiles (mostly clothes) are collected each year in the town’s textile bin in the Church carpark on Station road. “This figure”, says Dara Wyer, “is very good compared with other sites around the county”.
“While the figures for glass deposited at Leixlip’s bottle banks has risen steadily since 2005, when we first kept track of it, the 2009 figure is down 5 per cent on the previous year, due, more that likely to the impact of the recession on consumer spending, and maybe even the stay-at-home weather over the Christmas period”, said Leixlip Tidy Town Association’s PRO, John Colgan
There is little doubt that if either of the two bottle banks lost to the north side of the town, at Super Valu, River Forest, and Confey Cemetery, could be replaced or reinstated there would be even more glass recycled”, he said.
