Kilkenny chocolate lovers urged to recycle Easter egg packaging

KILKENNY households are being urged to recycle their Easter egg packaging.

It comes as new figures reveal more than 1,000 tonnes of recyclable material will be left over when Irish consumers have munched their way through an estimated 17 and a half million chocolate eggs this Easter.

Ireland’s three regional waste management offices (Southern, Connacht/Ulster and Eastern/Midlands) are advising householders that all cardboard and hard plastic from Easter eggs should be disposed of in the household recycling bins as per Ireland’s household recycling list.

Sinéad Ní Mhainnín, Waste Prevention Officer with Waste Management Office (CUR) said: “The majority of the packaging on Easter eggs is recyclable, and the cardboard and hard plastic covers can be disposed of in the household recycle bins, as per the Recycling Ireland List. The list includes all cardboard and paper, hard plastic, tins and cans. All clean items made from these materials can now be disposed of in the recycling bin.

“Foil and soft plastic, such as that used for sweets and chocolate wrappers, must be disposed of in the general waste bin however, as it can be difficult to clean food from foil,” she added.
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Anthony Muleady, Chairman of the Irish Waste Management Association, the trade association for waste management companies in Ireland, added: “With some 17 million Easter eggs consumed in Ireland each year that is a lot of cardboard, plastic and foil to be disposed of. Unnecessary packaging is a big environmental issue and we need to see manufacturers doing more to reduce it.

“The waste management industry is also asking householders to familiarise themselves with Recycling List Ireland which outlines the list of recyclable materials that are suitable for the dry recycling bin,” he added.

For more information on Ireland’s New Recycling List, log on to: https://recyclinglistireland.ie.