Reuse and Recycle
In 2012 an estimated 15,000 tons of clothes, shoes and
household textiles were either reused or recycled by Irish Charity
Shops Association members which would otherwise have been
dumped in landfill. This is equivalent of 1,500 40-foot
containers. More than 80% of the items were reused; the balance was
recycled either as re-carded wool or cotton or as insulation and
padding in the motor industry.
By supporting Irish charity shops either through donation or
purchase of goods, you can be sure that you are helping the
environment and raising valuable funds for legitimate charities.
However if you cannot take your items to a charity shop or the shop
cannot accept it (e.g. a large piece of furniture) then you can
find a new home for it through
FreeTrade Ireland.ie - Finding new homes for unwanted
items
FreeTradeIreland.ie is a free national service where
householders and businesses throughout Ireland can pick up and pass
on quality items such as home and office furniture, baby goods,
electronics, DIY / construction materials and tools, sports
equipment, musical instruments, toys, gardening accessories and
motoring items.
The online service is free to use and people can view ads for
items as well as post items of their own once they are a member of
the site. Arrangements to collect items are made directly with the
person advertising the item and no cost applies to either party.
Items posted up on the website are generally in good condition,
full working order and ideal for re-use and users are encouraged to
upload pictures to describe their item accurately.
The FreeTrade Ireland service is supported by the Department of
the Environment, Community and Local Government and funded by Local
Authorities across Ireland. The website aims to help prevent
usable items going to landfill and increase the lifespan of items
for re-use.
The website has been designed to be as user friendly as possible
with a search engine forming the centre-piece of the website. The
website records re-use data through the site, features mapping and
alerts which help users with their searches. As an example if a
user is looking for a particular item and there are none initially
on offer the user can then save a search on their FREE account and
receive an email telling them when the item of interest is posted.
Alternatively they could post a free wanted ad in the wanted
section.
The Free Trade service originated as a regional re-use service
for Dublin on DublinWaste.ie in 2006. Due to its success it
was then expanded to become FreeTradeIreland.ie in July 2010 with
Mayo County Council now acting as the lead authority. Since the
service has commenced over 61,000 items have found new homes. The
website currently has over 43,000 members using the reuse service
to post ads in the both the offered and wanted sections.
Approximately 40% of items on Free Trade Ireland fit in to the
furniture category. Generally these items are bulky in nature,
difficult to take to recycling centres, take up most of the space
in a costly skip and most importantly are reusable or
restorable! These items are often something they would like to
see live on in the home of a friend or family member or pass on to
a charity organisation - however due to a number of reasons be it a
lack of interested from their immediate circle of friends and
family or lack of space in the charity shops storage area it is not
possible to find a new home. FreeTradeIreland.ie solves this
problem by connecting people with items they want to pass on to
other people that need the item and will give it a new lease of
life.
To help new users to understand the FreeTrade Ireland Reuse
service there is now a video showing people how to use the service,
how to upload items and the benefits of the service. View this
video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_FbIQ1eCnY
For more information please contact Brenda McEvoy (01) 523 9235
or email info@freetradeireland.ie
Or download the User Guide here
Waste Management Hierarchy:
It takes more than 7,000 litres of water to produce a kilo
of cotton!