Limerick Council foots part of bill for rebranding of bring banks nationwide

LIMERICK City and County Council paid REPAK more than €100,000 as a contribution towards the rebranding of 10,000 recycling bring banks across the country, it can be revealed.

The monies, which totalled €110,000, were paid out by the local authority last December on behalf of the Southern Region Waste Management Office (SRWMO) which is based at Lissanalta House, Dooradoyle.

The SRWMO, which agreed to support the rebranding programme in early 2016, also agreed to facilitate the payment of contributions (to REPAK) from the country’s two other regional waste management offices.

Documents obtained by the Limerick Leader under the Freedom of Information Act, show that while Limerick City and County Council paid REPAK as per the invoice it received on November 30, 2017, the monies are to be recouped in full from the Department of Communication, Climate Action and Environment which has agreed to fund the project.

The contribution of €110,000 by Limerick City and County Council represents just over half of the total cost of the rebranding project which is being carried out by Glassco Limited which was awarded the contract by REPAK following a compeditive tender process.

As part of the rebranding project, which is ongoing, receptacles (for used glass, tins and cans) which are located at 154 civic amenity sites and 1,848 unmanned sites are to be rebranded with “uniform messaging” and branding.

Bring banks across the country will also be cleaned and power-washed before the old labels are removed and new labels applied.

The documents show it’s the first time there has been a national programme as up to now bring banks were maintained by each individual local authority.

According the documents supplied to the Limerick Leader, many of the current units in Limerick and across the country are “old and have inconsistent labelling”.

It is hoped the rebranding project will “aid better use of the bring bank network” and that the clearer labelling will “reduce contamination of materials in bring banks”.

According to an interim report, the rebranding programme has been completed in a number of local authority areas around the country.

It is expected that works at bring bank sites across Limerick city and county will be carried out and completed in the coming weeks and that the full project will be complete before the end of the year.