GoGreenwithfirst Wexfordbottlebank

August 1990

A bank with a difference is to open in Wexford shortly. It will be a bottle bank, and it will be sited in the L&N car park off Commercial Quay.

Your friendly bank manager will be Des Mernagh, the man responsible for private refuse collection in the area. He is hoping that people in Wexford will start ‘recycling’ in the way that is the norm in other countries, by bringing their glass bottles and jars there instead of putting them in with the rubbish.

‘Everyone is more environment-conscious these days,’ remarks Des, who already recycles waste cardboard from local factories.

He plans to bring the discarded glass to the Irish Glass factory in Ringsend. His enterprise has the blessing of Wexford Corporation, and he has applied for an environment grant. If he gets it, he may open other bottle banks in other places.

But why should people take the trouble to keep their glass items separate from the rest of their rubbish, and bring them specially to a collection point instead of just having them collected from their doors like the rest of their waste?

‘ That’s a tough one to answer,’ admits Des. ‘All I can say is that recyling is better for the environment and that many other countries are already better at recycling than we are here in Ireland. Maybe over the coming years, we’ll get used to recycling too.’