|
Greenstar is proud to be a sponsor of Green-Schools, the international environmental education programme, designed to promote and acknowledge school action for the environment. By working with Green-Schools we are committed to educating, influencing, and improving environmental awareness of young people and the wider community. Together we can promote greater awareness to improve and protect our precious and rich environment.
For further information on the Green Schools programme please visit their website at www.greenschoolsireland.org
Environmental Education & Awareness
Greenstar's service includes an on-site education programme tailored specifically to the requirements of the company. We offer educational talks, activities and reading material in relation to recycling and waste minimisation. Our clients are advised on the best methods of implementation and operation of new systems. As part of the programme, in-house staff training, (including sub-contractors) is provided and includes an environmental awareness section. Updates on developments in environmental and waste management related legislation are provided on a regular basis.
Schools Education Programme
Greenstar works with local schools and educational establishments to provide educational visits to its various recycling facilities and landfills around the country. To date, hundreds of schoolchildren have been able to visit our facilities and get first hand experience of the state-of-the-art technology and engineering designs used.
Public Awareness Day
Greenstar has provided domestic waste collection and recycling services in the Wicklow area since 2001. More recently we expanded our domestic waste and recycling services into Dublin to over 65,000 households in the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Council area.
One of the ways, we have demonstrated our ongoing commitment to the environment and local community in the Bray area was by hosting a public information exhibition. All residents from the locality were invited to attend the event which was intended to raise environmental awareness and provide information on waste management best practice.
The initiative provided information on waste management including information on new aspects of Greenstar's service provision such as kerb side recycling service and the recently introduced pay-by-use initiative.
The main objective of the exhibition was to provide information that would be beneficial for the whole family. Various exhibition stands provided information for attendees on how best to reduce, reuse and recycle their waste. More importantly, Greenstar gained valuable feedback from the attendees which allowed us to understand their motivations and recycling behaviour as well as their requirements. This in turn allowed us to review and make improvements to our service.
In addition, representatives from An Taisce's Green School's Programme, Tetra Pak and Wicklow County Council also participated in the exhibition and bringing valuable inputs to the area of household waste management.
Over 300 residents from the local community turned up to the event. The feedback from the event was very positive and the general consensus was that it was worthwhile and most informative. More tangible proof of the success of the awareness day is the fact that Greenstar's recycling rates for the Wicklow area for 2007 are up 17% for the same period for 2006. With the success of this event, Greenstar intends to host similar events on an annual basis in the Greater Dublin area and also roll out the initiative to other areas in which we work.
Waste management research and development work in universities.
Greenstar worked with and sponsored the UCD Biosystems Engineering Design Challenge for the last three years. The Biosystems Engineering Design Challenge provides an early opportunity for students to learn about engineering design, project management and teamwork in an environment that is both rewarding and fun.
The projects selected by the students are real world problems and the students are tasked with researching and investigating potential solutions. For example, one of the recent projects was spurred by a resident living in the Ringsend area in relation to alternatives for the treatment of waste water. As a result, the students researched technologies which would enable an apartment block to treat its waste water before being disposed of thus the potential to reduce the volumes of waste water being treated at the Ringsend Waste Water Treatment Facility.
|
