Thanks to funding of €42,500 from Repak, VOICE was given the opportunity to support 85 community groups in local recycling initiatives across the country. 

The Repak Community Grant set out to expand on the Recycling Ambassador Programme in promoting the new recycling list and to give a boost to local groups wanting to act on waste. 

Groups came to us from all over the country, from Donegal to Kerry, with a whole host of ideas to tackle waste in their local towns and cities. It has been such a joy to read about these projects in the reports coming in over the past few weeks. Ireland is in no way lacking in the energy and creativity to solve environmental challenges.  

Some groups went down the campaign route, like the Bray Tidy Towns campaign to tackle single use plastic straws from all local businesses while others organised clean ups and installed recycling bins. Carlingford Tidy Towns are planning to place a train-shaped recycling bin, ‘Tomás the Recycling Train’, in The Village Green alongside the tracks of the old railway.

Many used this as an opportunity to connect with their community in other ways; a Russian group in Galway and a Polish Group in Carlow set out to help their communities understand the recycling list in their own language through fun community events.In addition to these activities, all groups carried out our  'Recycling Behaviour and Barrier' survey, the results of this research will be analysed and published at the end of the Recycling Ambassador Programme later this year.