Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Going Green on The Clare Byrne Show with Repack. Repack members, repackaging the future and valuing resources. Find out more on repack.ie. Zoe Kavanagh, CEO of Repack, is here in the studio. Good morning to you, Zoe. Thank you for coming in. We wanted to talk to you firstly about these new packaging rules which are coming in in 2030, which sounds very far away, but it is not. What's changing?
Yeah, we have the single biggest piece of regulation that's going to change the packaging industry in 30 years. It comes into effect in August and we want to raise awareness, particularly among our members. We have three and a half thousand members. They are businesses that are involved in packaging. Packaging is part of their commercial endeavour. And kicking off in August is job number one.
They need to look at their supply chains and they need to identify roles. So there's a variety of roles. Are you a manufacturer, a distributor, an importer? or a producer. If you're a producer, you need to come knocking on Repack's door. You need to become a member of Repack.
Chapter 2: What new packaging regulations are coming into effect in 2030?
And what we do in exchange for that membership is we take on the responsibility of recycling or reusing or refilling their packaging.
So all of the packaging will have to be recyclable from 2030?
From 2030, that's correct. There's packaging in the marketplace today, complex packaging, the likes of pouches that might have granola in them. They're made up of three or four different plastic material types. And from 2030, they will no longer be allowed in the marketplace.
Dog food pouches that I look at all of the time in my hand and say, I don't know where you belong, which bin you belong in.
Yeah, so pouches in general, if they're made of plastic, if they're clean, loose and dry, they should be going into your recycling bin. Talking about pet food, all those cans that pet food come in, clean, loose and dry into the recycling bin.
But the key point here is Repack's here to support their members and we will guide them through the regulation over the next five and 10 years because it's set out over a long timeframe. I've just come from Bloom. We had a business breakfast with our members and actually with waste industry, all of us coming together. to ensure that we're supporting people in complying with the new regulation.
And the biggest opportunity we see is threefold. First of all, repack members today represent 60% of the packaging in the Irish marketplace. The regulation opens the door for us to bring in the other 40%. And by bringing in the other 40%, it means we're creating a field of fair play. We'll bring in more income, which will help fund the recycling endeavour.
I mean, this means for consumers, when we get to the point in 2030, that it'll be a lot easier because all of the packaging, once it is clean and dry and loose, will go into your recycling bin.
Yet this regulation actually is good because it will simplify packaging materials. It will ensure that packaging materials in the marketplace can be recycled, which therefore means that that effort in the household or if business is using the three bins correctly should ensure that we have greater outcomes. And actually, the recycling targets in the new regulation are increasing. So
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Chapter 3: How will the new regulations affect manufacturers and distributors?
So are you happy with that figure? Is that where it should be? How does it compare to, say, our European counterparts?
You know what, Ireland is definitely, I would say, in the top third of countries in Europe. Do I think 61% is good enough? No. I've stood in sorting centres and I have seen perfectly valuable material not being captured. So I think there's an awful lot more we can do because the ambition of this regulation actually is to give packaging a second life, third life, fourth life.
And I think we should be viewing packaging packaging, not as waste. We should be looking at it as a material. The regulation is now material governance, capture it, reuse it and save cost and help the environment.
So some of the packaging that we see and some of the products even that we see, so like those sachets of ketchup and mayonnaise and the small shampoo bottles in hotel rooms will be gone, will they?
Single-use plastics, we want to take out of the supply chain. And again, this regulation is going to actually gradually remove it, starting actually with the hospitality sector, where they're going to encourage people to come in with their own containers, not just for beverages, also for food. But this idea of single-use, we should be moving away from that.
And in fact, I applaud any establishments that are doing away with those single-portion, single-use products almost impossible to recycle because they're still dirty, they're still contaminated. So moving away from that, thinking about circular outcomes, looking at reuse and refill systems and as I said designing the packaging with a simpler approach.
Zoe, thank you very much. very much for coming in today. Zoe Kavanagh, CEO of Repack and Repack has a garden at Bloom if you're planning to head along there in the lovely weather this weekend. And that brings us to the end of the programme. Thank you for getting in touch today. You can listen back to anything you might have missed on the Go Loud app.
The team today, we had producers Alex Russo, Dee King and Helena O'Toole, researched by David O'Connor and Shanna Cole. Our broadcast assistant was Anne-Marie Kane. The Clare Byrne Show with Aviva Insurance. Weekday mornings at 9 on Newstalk. Conversation that counts.
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