Cashel to become Ireland’s first Zero Waste Town #zerowastecashel

The heritage town of Cashel in County Tipperary is moving towards a cleaner, greener future as it begins the process to become Ireland’s first Zero Waste town.
‘Towards Zero Waste Cashel’ is an 18-month pilot initiative which promotes reducing waste and repairing and repurposing items, and was officially launched today (Thursday) at the historic Rock of Cashel. Picture: Alan Place

The heritage town of Cashel in County Tipperary is moving towards a cleaner, greener future as it begins the process to become Ireland’s first Zero Waste town.

“Towards Zero Waste Cashel” is an 18-month pilot initiative which promotes reducing waste and repairing and repurposing items, and was officially launched on Thursday 2nd March at the historic Rock of Cashel (see video from launch below).

Led by environmental charity VOICE, funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and supported by the Southern Region Waste Management Office and Tipperary County Council, this pioneering new project aims to take a typical Irish town on a journey of change.

Aerial view of the human ‘0’ at the launch of Zero Waste Cashel

“The success of the project will depend on a lot of changes – changes in every day practices, behaviours and indeed attitudes towards waste,” explained Pauline McDonogh, Waste Prevention Officer with the SRWMO.

“Towards Zero Waste Cashel” will include the introduction of a number of local projects that will encourage a change in behaviour when it comes to dealing with waste.

“These projects include making people more aware of the proper segregation of waste; reducing the amount of single use items in the community; promoting repair of goods, upcycling, vintage, charity shops, car boot sales and second hand markets.”

Newly appointed Towards Zero Waste Cashel Project Manager, Derry O’Donnell, said he was excited about the challenges and opportunities ahead.

“There are many unique enterprise opportunities in a Zero Waste environment. We have seen how people can create unique pieces of furniture and other items when they begin to look at objects destined for landfill in a new light. There is so much that can be done with waste when we start exploring new ideas,” said Mr O’Donnell.

“This Zero Waste initiative is also about changing peoples habits and attitudes and that could be our biggest challenge. For example changing our views on single use non recyclable containers, such as our take away coffee cup or the plastic spoon we use just once to stir our tea,” added Mindy O’Brien, Coordinator, VOICE.

Helping to launch and announce details of Towards Zero Waste Cashel were, Mindy O’Brien, Voice, Derry O’Donnell, Zero Waste Cashel and Pauline McDonagh, Waste Prevention Officer, Southern Waste Region. Picture: Alan Place

Dara Lynott, Deputy Director General of the EPA, added “The EPA is proud to support this initiative which we believe will become a blueprint for sustainable towns and communities right across the country.”

Keep up to date with Zero Waste Cashel on Facebook www.facebook.com/ZeroWasteCashel/ and Twitter @ZeroWasteCashel