Repak has announced that, in collaboration with Bus Éireann, it has transformed 150,000 recycled bottles into drivers’ uniforms.
The announcement has been made as part of the launch of Repak’s new ‘Team Green: Most Valuable Players’ campaign, which celebrates innovative organisational recycling practices created by Repak Team Green supporters.
The aim of the campaign is to ‘inspire other organisations to join Team Green and publicly commend those helping Ireland get to 50% of all plastic recycled by 2025 by showcasing their work’.
Ethically Sourced
The packaging company explained that the components of the uniform are made from ethically sourced and recycled materials.
The polyester used in the uniforms is made from recycled plastic bottles, and each uniform prevents 20 plastic bottles from going to landfill.
Speaking on this milestone achievement, Emer Bambrick, sustainability senior manager at Bus Éireann, said, “Bus Éireann was delighted to partner with Repak and Tailored Image for this initiative. Collaboration and engagement within our supply chain is integral to achieving circularity within our business and represents our commitment to sustainability and the goals set out in our sustainability strategy – Driving Change 2021-2030.
“Since Repak Team Green launched in 2018, the collective efforts of the public to recycle has resulted in an increase of recycled plastic packaging tonnes by 32%, or 25,720 tonnes.
“The theme of Repak’s Team Green campaign is to ‘reimagine’ and has been created to help consumers’ understanding of how recycled plastic can be made into many different products and materials if recycled correctly.”
Reimagining
Séamus Clancy, CEO of Repak, said, “The use of plastic bottles in Bus Éireann’s driver uniforms is a fantastic example of what can be done when we ‘reimagine’ our relationship with plastic, to create a more circular future.
“Using recycled materials to create new uniforms is a great incentive to reimagine how we deal with packaging, and we hope that this effort inspires others to follow suit. Despite the achievements made by Repak members and other businesses, attaining the 2025 EU plastic packaging recycling targets remains a formidable challenge for Ireland.
“Forecasts indicate that Ireland will miss its national plastic target. If all organisations in Ireland focused on recycling their plastic and being innovative in their approach, Ireland would make significant progress to meet these targets.
“It’s not every day that you see businesses using recycled bottles to redesign their uniforms, so we’d like to call on all organisations to step up to the challenge to reimagine their plastic use by joining Team Green today.”
