Education in the Community
Greyhound operates Ireland’s first waste recycling research and education facility at its Clondalkin Sustainable Recovery Facility. This facility is now supplemented by the new Dublin Local Authority MRF in Ballymount, Dublin (also operated by Greyhound. Through education and specialised training programmes, Greyhound has raised waste awareness in the community and provides an understanding of the waste hierarchy pyramid. Prevention/ Minimisation
Preventing waste means economic savings for communities, businesses, schools, and individual consumers. To help our communities a national waste prevention programme has been established within the EPA.
Waste prevention or source reduction basically means consuming and throwing away less. This includes: - Buying durable and long-lasting goods, purchasing products in large volumes to minimise packaging, buying products made from recycled materials or buy unpacked products
- Redesigning products to use less raw material in production, have a longer life, or be used again
- Use rechargeable batteries.
Re– Use
There is cost savings for business and consumers as a reusable product is often cheaper than the many single use products it replaces. Pro-active methods will have environmental and financial benefits to our communities. We all re-use items frequently and we should encourage and educate others to adopt this approach: - Donate unwanted clothes, furniture etc to charities and second-hand shops
- Refilling bottles and re-using boxes
- Turning empty jars into containers for leftover food.
Recycling
Recycling is a key tool for adding value to our community and helps to reduce the environmental impact associated with disposing of waste. Some advantages of recycling are: - Converts into a valuable commodity
- Conserves resources for future generations
- Decreases landfills and incinerator
- Supplies raw materials to industry
- Generates more jobs for our communities.
Energy Recovery
Greyhound is the only waste management company in Ireland producing Solid Recovered Fuel and using it within Ireland. The waste is burnt to generate energy, which means fossil fuels are conserved, therefore reducing the amount of waste to landfill.
Disposal
Disposal is the least favourable option of waste management and should only be considered when there is no other alternative. For this reason, landfill plays an important part in integrated waste management systems in managing waste that cannot be recycled and has no energy value. Greyhound believes landfill is the last resort in the chain.
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