Newspaper recycling jumps by 45%

Newspaper recycling in Ireland has risen dramatically, according to international environmental consultants RPS.


From a low 28% of newspapers recycled in 2002, the consultancy revealed a jump to 73.8% last year.

A 16.5% increase in the last year took the total volume of newspapers recycled a year to 161,000 tonnes.

National Newspapers of Ireland environment officer Enda Buckley said: “In the past year we have implemented a new policy of ‘whole copy’ returns to maximise the number of unsold newspapers that get recycled.”

He added that the newspaper industry had set itself a target of collecting 50% of all unsold newspapers – a target which has already been exceeded.

NNI chairwoman Maeve Donovan called the boost in recycling a “genuine environmental success story”.

Ms Donovan, who is also the managing director of the Irish Times, told her newspaper: “The Irish newspaper industry has worked very hard over the past five years to improve the supply chain so that as much paper as possible gets recycled.

“We have also invested heavily to promote a culture of paper recycling among consumers, and both of these initiatives are clearly working very well.”

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