Prevent and Save – Repak’s programme in action

Repak’s Prevent and Save programme is a free service offered to Repak members as a means to reduce the amount of packaging they place on the Irish market. The programme includes an on-site survey designed to help businesses prevent packaging waste and reduce costs.

To fully understand your waste costs, your recovery operator should be supplying you with a breakdown (by weight) of all the waste which is being collected from your business. This means that you should be aware of:

1. What your waste collection is costing;
2. Areas where waste or overuse may be occurring; and,
3. Areas where you can make savings.

Two of Ireland’s finest hardware stores are helping to fund recycling in Ireland through their membership of Repak. Recently, Morris’s DIY and McDonogh Trade Centre took part in the Prevent and Save programme which included a survey of their packaging systems and waste management practices.

Morris’s DIY

Morris’s DIY is the largest independent builder’s merchants and DIY store in the southeast of Ireland. In order to prevent packaging waste and reduce the costs associated with waste collection, Seamus Reynolds from Morris’s DIY recently embarked on a mission to reduce on-site packaging and improve how waste is being managed at the newly-refurbished store on the Cork Road in Waterford. Seamus Reynolds, Manager, Morris’s DIY, commented: “In conjunction with Repak’s packaging technology team, we are now implementing a plan for the business that reduces the  mount of packaging we accept on site from our suppliers and that helps us to reduce our overall waste costs.”

Here are just some of the changes that Morris’s DIY is making:

suppliers are required to take back pallets for reuse;

more goods are delivered directly from suppliers rather than through third parties to further improve opportunities to return and reuse packaging;

the use of skips on site is being reduced in favour of alternatives that improve segregation; and,

there is measured baling of cardboard and plastic materials.

McDonogh Trade Centre

McDonogh Trade Centre has been trading in the Galway area for 150 years. The business offers a wide range of products and services to builders, retailers and the general public. Brendan Maher from McDonogh Trade Centre has undertaken a number of initiatives to reduce waste such as reusing flower pots in the garden centre and updating the docket and invoicing systems to reduce paper waste.

Brendan explains how the company’s participation in the Prevent and Save programme is benefitting their business: “Our focus on waste management was impacted during Ireland’s recent recession. However, as a participant in the Prevent and Save programme, Repak are now helping us to introduce a realistic plan that reduces our packaging waste and improves how we segregate packaging waste for recycling.”

As a result of their participation in the programme, McDonogh Trade Centre is implementing a number of key changes including:

• introducing packaging re-use initiatives with local suppliers to prevent packaging waste;
• using a twin chamber baler to bale both plastic and cardboard rather than cardboard only to increase the free collection of recyclable plastics; and,
• implementing an alternative waste collection system to reduce costs by more than 25%.

If you would like more information on Repak’s Prevent and Save Programme please visit the website at: www.repak.ie/preventandsave.  To avail of the Prevent and Save Programme or to obtain further information on any of the services provided by Repak please contact Brian Walsh or Colm Munnelly by email at prevention@repak.ie or, alternatively, by phone at 01 467 0190.

This Business Support article featured in the July/August 2017 edition of The Hardware Journal.