Latest news with #Repak
RTÉ News
29-05-2025
- General
- RTÉ News
Bloom is set to feature a garden of reimagined waste with Repak
Ahead of their appearance at Bord Bia's Bloom, environmental not-for-profit organisation Repak has shared its latest research, revealing that 67% of Irish adults rate their recycling knowledge highly, but there is still room for improvement, as 71% don't know how to recycle bleach bottles correctly. To help close these knowledge gaps, Repak will host a 'Most Sorted Garden' at Bord Bia Bloom in Dublin's Phoenix Park this Thursday - Monday, welcoming thousands of visitors with hands-on tips and practical inspiration for better recycling habits at home and in the garden. Ahead of Ireland's premier garden festival, we spoke to journalist and sustainability advocate Jo Linehan about the festival and ways in which we can make our homes a little more eco-friendly "The festival itself has so many unbelievable sustainability initiatives," Linehan says of Bloom, noting that coffee grounds from the festival will be donated to OPW for fertilising material; reusable cups and glassware will be available to attendees; and multiple public transport options will be available so cars can be avoided. "Repak have designed a beautiful garden," she adds. "Everything in it will be what we, traditionally, would describe as waste items. They've reimagined so many things that we would throw away or recycle, and featured them as beautiful pieces in the garden." As the host of one of Repak's panel discussions, Linehan hopes that the garden will inspire attendees to open their minds to reusing household items. As it stands, three in five (60%) of people surveyed have used empty packaging for gardening purposes, such as starting seeds, as plant pots, for watering or for creating plant labels. "I think people are so innovative," Linehan says of the findings. "The fact that that many gardeners are thinking that way is amazing." Although the enthusiasm to recycle seems to be there, Linehan says that there is often a "knowledge gap" when it comes to organising our bins. According to the research, less than half of adults can correctly identify which bins tinfoil (44%), cosmetic jars (45%) and deodorant cans (50%) should go in, while 71% don't know how to recycle bleach bottles correctly. So, let's get straight to the answers: Tinfoil is recyclable as long as it is clean, dry, and loose. Cosmetic jars are recyclable as long as they are clean, dry and loose. Empty glass jars can be placed in the glass recycling bin, while plastic jars are typically recyclable with other plastics in the green / recycling bin at home. Deodorant cans can not be recycled as they are aerosols. Bleach & household cleaning bottles are recyclable as long as they are clean, dry and loose. This means you should rinse them to remove any residue, ensure they are completely dry, and place them loosely in the bin, without any bags, and with the lid on. As well as hosting a panel discussion featuring Repak Members Ballymaloe Foods, Britvic Ireland, Coca Cola HBC, Homestore and More, Lidl Ireland and Musgrave to explore the future of recycling, Linehan will be speaking across the weekend on topics including sustainable fashion and sustainable beauty. Over the five days of the festival, the journalist hopes to inspire optimistic, creative, and exciting conversations surrounding sustainability in Ireland. "We hear so much about the negatives of what's happening to the environment, but we never really hear about the amazing things," she muses. "It's lovely to shine a light on the things that are really good." When it comes to simple and effective ways to improve household recycling, Jo says to follow these four tips: Print out recycling guides and stick them on the fridge or above the bin. Every household is entitled to a brown compost bin - if you don't have one, get in touch with your bin supplier or apartment management. Add coffee grounds to the plants in your garden. Make a bird feeder from an empty plastic bottle - you can find handy tutorials on YouTube. "It can be a really overwhelming thing to say you're going to be more sustainable," she admits. "It's really difficult to do, so if the only thing you did was up your recycling a bit or get that compost bin and start using it, that would be massive." In fact, according to Repak, if every Bloom visitor decided to recycle one more item per day, it would result in 36.5 million more items diverted from landfill - the equivalent of 28 GAA pitches.
RTÉ News
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
8 things to see and do at Bloom 2025
A staple of the June Bank Holiday Weekend, Bord Bia Bloom is an annual extravaganza of food, fashion, flowers and craft. Now celebrating its 19th year, Ireland's premier garden festival takes place across 70 beautiful acres of Dublin's Phoenix Park from Thursday, 29 May - Monday, 2 June. This spectacular gardening festival is a great event for garden designers, flower lovers, landscapers, garden furniture admirers, food fanatics and anyone who loves to spend time in nature. This year's festival will feature 21 Show Gardens, 30 live cookery demos, 40 live talks,and more than 100 of Ireland's top food and drink producers. To get you started, we've highlighted eight of our must-see spots for 2025: 1. Visit the Super Garden winner Visit the winning garden design from this year's Super Garden! Last night, Laois woman Debbie Brophy was crowned the winner of Super Garden 2025 thanks to her 'bee happy' wildlife garden, which was inspired by a honeybee colony that moved into her own garden. Thanks to her win, Debbie will have her design exhibited at Bord Bia Bloom, and she is buzzing for it. Speaking on her win, she said: "It's an immense feeling; there will be a hundred thousand people coming to see our garden and it means the world". 2. Make your garden eco-friendly The Most Sorted Garden, sponsored by Repak, is a living, breathing showcase of the circular economy in action. Designed by award-winning garden designer James Purdy, the space will help visitors understand how to recycle better at home. Across the five days, there will be a range of engaging and educational experiences including panel discussions, cooking demos and child-friendly workshops. Highlights include a panel discussion hosted by sustainability advocate Jo Linehan, as well as a waste-cutting cooking workshop from Donal Skehan. For even more tips, make a beeline for the Conservation Area where you can chat with leading conservationists and environmentalists. Here you will also find the inspirational Sustainable Living Stage, which will host a packed programme of talks on a wide range of topics, from the circular economy and renewable energy to gardening with fewer chemicals and sustainable fashion advice. 3. Taste the best of Irish food and drink The Food Hall within the Food Village features more than 100 of Ireland's artisan producers. From chocolates to cheese and oysters to teas, there is plenty to tantalise your tastebuds. While you're there, you can pop over to Bloom Inn, where some of the country's best craft brewers and distillers are gathered. For more delicious dining options, head to The Seafood Terrace, Country Crest Restaurant, or choose from more than 60 food trucks who are serving a wide variety of cuisines in the Picnic Area, Food Village, and Bloom's dedicated grill zone, BBQ Bliss, sponsored by Ninja Woodfire. If you want something extra special, there is 'A Taste of Bloom', curated by Neven Maguire, which features a three-course menu designed by the MacNean House chef-proprietor to showcase some of the very best ingredients from quality Irish producers. The special package is available on Ticketmaster, priced at €79 per person, which includes entry to the festival and a three-course lunch. 4. Watch your favourite chefs and culinary stars in action Donal Skehan, Neven Maguire, Aishling Moore and Catherine Fulvio are among a collection of culinary stars taking to the Dunnes Stores Quality Kitchen Stage this year. With 30 live demos planned for the weekend, this is a must-see for anyone who loves to cook. Seafood fans should also check out Bloom's new Seafood Kitchen, where chef Trisha Lewis is hosting three demos each day. 5. Catch more gardening, floral art and craft demos and workshops With 300 talks, demos, performances and workshops taking place across the Bloom weekend, there is ample opportunity to grow, taste and learn at this year's festival. You can learn how to care for houseplants or make a floral crown in the new Botanical Hub Demo Space; discover some fascinating facts and enjoy the simulators at the Horticulture is Life area; find out how to grow abundant kitchen gardens in the Eat Well Garden; enjoy farming demos at the Agri Aware Farm; and see some of Ireland's master craftspeople demonstrate their skills in the Design & Craft Council Ireland (DCCI) Irish Craft Village. You can see the full event schedule here. 6. Visit the RTÉ stage There is no shortage of musical entertainment planned for the Bloom weekend. Head to the Entertainment Stage to watch an eclectic collection of artists perform and make sure to stop by RTÉ's outdoor broadcast area to see your favourite presenters broadcast live, including Louise Duffy, Derek Mooney, Philip Boucher-Hayes, Marty Whelan, Simon Delaney and more. You can see RTÉ's full programme here. 7. Invest in some top-tier plants Whether you're a budding gardener or a veteran plant parent, visit the Nursery Village and The Plant Emporium for some retail therapy. If you buy too many to carry, fear not. You can store them in the Plant Crèche, sponsored by Certa Renewables, until it's time to go home. If plants aren't your thing, head to the Design & Crafts Council Ireland (DCCI) Irish Craft Village. Here, you'll find a selection of Ireland's most talented craftspeople showcasing their wares in a charming village of 38 tents. There will also be workshops, demonstrations, and drop-in craft activities for all the family. 8. Have fun with your Budding Bloomers The Budding Bloomers Children's Area is perfect for little ones. There will be face painting, crafting, and a rip-roaring lineup of performances from some of Ireland's favourite children's entertainers. Elsewhere in the festival, children can visit the Phoenix Park Playground, the Agri Aware Farm. and get their hands dirty in the Westland Horticulture Potting Shed. Remember, two children aged 16 and under can enter for free with every adult ticket. Getting there If you plan on attending, be sure to visit the Plan Your Day section of the Bloom website to get the most out of your trip. Visitors are encouraged to take public transport to the festival when possible. A regular, free shuttle bus is available to take visitors from Parkgate Street, next to the Luas Red Line and Heuston Station, to the festival's entrance on Chesterfield Avenue.
Irish Examiner
15-05-2025
- General
- Irish Examiner
Bernard O'Shea: One Nutella jar, an Instagram reel, and five tiny ways to save the earth
I didn't set out to become an environmentalist. I set out to clean a Nutella jar—or rather, to perform an exorcism on it. You think it's a simple task—rinse, recycle, done—until you're at the sink with a spoon, a butter knife, and a haunted look in your eye, scraping around the curved inside like you're trying to defuse a chocolatey bomb. I posted a reel about it on Instagram. I thought it was a throwaway moment, me expressing that "My wife is right. I'm getting older and weirder. I should just pick up golf." But the response to the comments differed. What surprised me most was how genuinely on board everyone was with the whole reuse philosophy. @brendaflynncox "I have these exact jars cluttering up my press … and I can't throw them out plus the Nutella ones are unbreakable! I even have the lids ….. so handy. For something…." @ "As my dear Mother used to say they might be handy so keep collecting Bernard they have nice covers." @terenk "I no longer buy Nutella but when my children were small, they were their drinking glasses, still some here. I recycle my marmalade jars and give to friends who make marmalade." Is there any point in trying to save the Earth one washed yoghurt pot at a time? Or is it all just guilt dressed in eco-green? 1. Wash before you recycle Let's be honest — the emotional weight of scrubbing out a sticky Nutella jar feels disproportionate to its size. But here's the hard truth: unwashed recyclables can ruin an entire batch. According to Repak and the World Wildlife Fund, contamination is one of the biggest reasons recycling ends in landfills. It's like baking a gorgeous cake and then chucking a raw onion in at the last minute — suddenly, the whole thing's bin fodder. And no, you don't need to scrub everything like you're prepping for a Bord Bia audit. Use your leftover dishwasher. If it's stubborn, fill it with warm water, screw the lid on, and shake it like you're training for cocktail hour. The difference is real: Recycling a clean glass jar saves enough energy to power a 100-watt lightbulb for 4 hours. 2. The Bag of Bags Has a Purpose You know the drawer I mean. That stuffed-to-the-gills, slightly terrifying cavern of plastic bags under the sink. Some are vintage — pre-euro, maybe even pre-Celtic tiger. Some have knots in them you'll never undo. But here's the thing: every single one of those bags is a chance to not take a new one. Producing one single-use plastic bag emits the same fossil fuel energy as driving a kilometre in a petrol car. It doesn't sound like much until you realise we go through one million plastic bags globally every minute. That's a motorway of emissions, every 60 seconds. Reusing just one of those bags ten times? You've cut its footprint in half. Twenty times? You're practically Greta with groceries. 3. Reuse tin foil, it's kitchen gold Aluminium is a miracle material. Strong, light, endlessly recyclable. It's the MacGyver of the kitchen drawer. But here's the problem: we treat it like it's disposable, even though producing new foil takes a shocking amount of energy. Recycling aluminium saves 95% of the energy needed to make it from raw materials. When you reuse or properly recycle foil, you save enough energy to run a laptop for hours. And yes, I get it — it comes out of the oven looking like it's been through a war. But if it's not torn or soaked in fat, just rinse and flatten it out. 4. The planet doesn't need another stress ball You walk into a bank, a seminar, or a pharmacy, and someone offers you a free pen, lanyard, or a branded tote bag so thin it'll rip before you hit the car park. And what do you do? You say yes, because it's free. That word lights up our hunter-gatherer brain like a Lidl middle aisle. But here's the catch: it's not free if you don't need it. Every disposable pen, novelty keyring, and stress ball shaped like a tooth ends up in a landfill. 5. Brick the toilet Every flush, you use 6 to 9 litres of clean, treated water. Water that had to be processed, filtered, pumped, and paid for. Most of that isn't needed — you could shave off a litre or two per flush and never notice. So here's the trick: take an old plastic bottle, fill it with water, seal it, and gently place it in your cistern. Boom. Instant water savings. Over a year, that could save your household around 7,000 litres of water. That's enough to bathe a small elephant (not recommended, but I did it for this column. I should have taken pictures for evidence. Ah, well.), or fuel a kettle for 2,300 cups of tea (very recommended). So next time you're at the sink, wrestling a jam jar, muttering curses at the lid, remember: somewhere out there, a penguin might nod in appreciation. (Or at least, not giving you the flipper.) Read More Metropole connects with plumber who was among those named in note from 1969
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Cambria County approves agreement with ICE on detained illegal immigrants at prison
NORTHERN CAMBRIA, Pa. – The Cambria County commissioners Thursday approved a new agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for removal of detained illegal aliens in the Cambria County Prison. This is part of the Warrant Service Officer program under Section 287(g) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 that allows ICE agents to partner with state and local law enforcement to identify and remove criminal aliens from the country. Cambria County Solicitor Ronald Repak said people arrested and detained at the prison who are flagged as illegally in the country by the Department of Homeland Security during processing would be held without bail due to their immigration status. Federal agents would then arrive at the prison within 48 hours to collect the detained person for potential deportation proceedings. 'That's consistent with what the prison has been doing,' Repak said. 'They're not taking over as an ICE agent – they're simply filling the papers out (and) making sure they're served appropriately. But it's all under the supervision of ICE.' This agreement is one of three the county could have adopted. The others are the Jail Enforcement Model and Task Force Model, which provide more immigration authority to local and state law enforcement. Repak said the agreement is voluntary and 'working closely with ICE is something the commissioners are interested in doing.' ICE and President Donald Trump's administration in recent months have increased deportation efforts that in some cases have led to the detention of some college students, arrests of legal permanent immigrants and dramatic scenes as agents carry out their duties. Trump has also invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to target alleged Venezuelan gang members and send them to a prison in El Salvador, which has brought up questions of due process from rights groups. U.S. judges in New York and Texas barred those deportations for now Wednesday. Cambria County Prison Warden Kurt Wolford said the arrangement won't have an impact on jail operations and described the action as a continuation of cooperation with the federal agencies. 'We've always had a good working relation not only with the Department of Homeland Security, but really any law enforcement agency,' he said. Wolford said he recognized that immigration is a 'hot-button issue,' but said the agreement simply allows Cambria County Prison officials to assist the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, ICE's parent agency. According to the ICE website, the Warrant Service Officer program empowers ICE officials to 'train, certify and authorize state and local law enforcement officers to serve and execute administrative warrants on aliens in their agency's jail.'
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Wildfires in the Myrtle Beach area haven't destroyed any homes. Here are some reasons why
Wildfires have impacted more than 1,600 acres in the Myrtle Beach area, with flames burning within a few feet of homes in communities close to Carolina Forest. With firefighters and first responders attending to the wildfires, a fire unrelated to the Carolina Forest blaze destroyed just one residence in Little River Horry County Fire Rescue announced on its Facebook page. The question becomes what role fire prevention built into homes plays in ensuring wildfires haven't engulfed properties, considering some of their proximity to populated communities in Carolina Forest. According to one home builder, it is negligible compared to the work of first responders who contained the flames over the last several days. Jason Repak is the president of the Myrtle Beach-based custom home building firm Hudson Custom Homebuilders, Inc. In an interview with The Sun News, Repak said that most fire-deterrent technology in a home prevents the spread of fires started in the house versus from external sources like wildfires. Things like firewalls between townhomes or using different types of drywall in different parts of homes slow fires from spreading, Repak said. Repak added that other fire prevention technologies in dwellings keep homes from collapsing on their occupants before they can escape. 'The thing that kept those homes from catching on fire and burning are the firefighters. There's just no, there's just no two ways about it,' Repak added. 'Yes, there are materials that we use and technologies that we put in place building homes to help prevent fire spread in homes. But I can't specifically point to one piece that if we didn't change that piece of technology, those homes would have burned up.' Yet homes built in South Carolina are already built to withstand extreme events like hurricanes. In 2024, the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety published a report rating the 18 states along the hurricane coast from Texas to Maine with the best building code systems. Of the 18 states featured in the ranking, South Carolina tied for the third-best building code system. Meanwhile, Horry County's Code of Ordinances for buildings and building regulations follows the International Fire Code created by the International Code Council. Repak said the Myrtle Beach area also provides a wide range of weather events that require building sturdier homes to survive extreme weather events. Whether it's making homes earthquake-proof, roofs resistant to high winds, or abodes able to cope with the occasional tropical storm or hurricane, Repak said that builders must account for all of that in Horry County. 'We live in a very unique place when it comes to constructing houses,' He added. 'So we have to deal with almost every type of weather phenomenon in this area that you can build a home for.' Part of the benefit comes from the large number of new homes throughout the Grand Strand and Carolina Forest. The Carolina Forest communities are relatively new along the Grand Strand. Hence its name, Carolina Forest, retained its lush greenery and remained mostly undeveloped until the early 2000s. Its remoteness and vast wilderness made it an attractive occasional practice range for the Conway Bombing and Gunnery Range between 1942 and 1947, and unexploded ordnance occasionally appeared in the Carolina Forest area in recent years. The Myrtle Beach area and South Carolina have an ample supply of homes built within the last two to three decades. According to a report by the National Association of Home Builders, in 2023, the median age of a house owned in the United States was 40 years old. According to the NAHB, the median age of South Carolina's housing stock was between 23-30 years old, and the real estate data firm ATTOM lists the average age of homes in Horry County as 30 years. Repak added that newer homes also benefit from utilizing better fire-prevention technology that older homes could not access during the building process. 'Technology progresses, and material manufacturing progresses. We continue to find materials that create a little bit safer structure for homeowners,' Repak said. 'Remember, it was 50 years ago. We were putting asbestos in homes and lead-based paint 10 years before that.' However, Repak said this new technology can only account for a small portion of preventing homes from catching on fire, such as slowing the spread of a fire from one home to the next. He added that the work of firefighters and a touch of luck were responsible for preventing the mass destruction of fire due to flames in Carolina Forest. 'That was the effort of those firefighters and emergency responders on scene that got those fires knocked down before they spread to those homes because they could have easily spread those homes,' Repak said. 'Especially like the homes that you see down on in Cherry Grove, Atlantic Beach, North Myrtle Beach, all those oceanfront row homes that are close together, once a home catches on fire, it's very easy for that fire to jump from one home to the next.'
