What a waste: Kilkenny near bottom of table for recycling electrical goods
People in Kilkenny are recycling 20% less than the national average when it comes to electrical goods, a new report has found.
Despite Kilkenny residents recording their highest total of electrical waste recycling per head of population in 2019, a yearly rise of 2.9%, the Marble county languishes in the bottom five counties when it came to the average weight per person of electrical goods collected and recycled in Ireland last year.
Kilkenny people recycled a total of 855,766 kg of electrical waste for free at local authority centres, WEEE (Waste and Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Ireland collection days and participating retailers in 2019.
Although this was a new annual high of 8.62 kg of waste electrical items per person was collected by WEEE Ireland on behalf of its members in the county in 2019, it lags nearly 50% behind Dublin at 12.15kg per person and neighbors Carlow at 11.75kg per person.
Despite the poor figures for Kilkenny, it is a marked improvement over the county’s 2018 total. Overall, it has been another year of encouraging improvements in the effort to recycle nationwide.
WEEE Ireland was the second-best performing recycling scheme in Europe in 2019, with 38,594 tonnes of waste electrical items and the equivalent of over 44 million used AA portable batteries collected, its annual report has revealed.
A new national record of 10.89 kg of e-waste was recycled per head of population last year by WEEE Ireland, on behalf of over 1,114 members and partners – a rise of 6.2% on 2018.
The WEEE scheme was one of the few in Europe to meet a landmark EU environmental Directive target to recover the equivalent of 65% of the average weight of all new electrical equipment placed on the market by its members over the three preceding years.
WEEE Ireland CEO Leo Donovan claims that the country could struggle to meet the 65% benchmark figure this year if an expected glut of waste electrical items is not diverted from landfill.
“Households throughout the country have used the lockdown to carry out extended spring cleaning, and it is vital that these end of life electrical items do not end up in landfill.
“Now that people are free to travel within their counties, we are urging consumers to avoid an e-waste crisis by recycling for free at their local authority recycling centres and participating retailers which have now reopened,” Mr Donovan concluded.
