'Newspaper' bricks to brag about

AS I sat shredding old newspapers, I was reminded of the "old newspaper man".
He was not exactly my best pal because he would disturb my sleep on weekends.

To make matters worse, I had a niggling suspicion that I was shortchanged every time he took away a towering stack of newspapers and left me with a paltry sum of money.

But that was yesterday.
Like the time-tested tale of the ant and the grasshopper, I am actually enjoying my new-found hobby, making paper mache bricks out of old newspapers to light the fireplace in winter.

Sure, we can go out and buy bags of turf at the convenience store but nothing beats creating your own fuel -- soaking the paper, compressing the pulp in a simple machine bought from eBay and drying the bricks.

Recycling is big time in Ireland. Surprisingly, many household items that end up in the bin each week can be recycled.

The whole idea is to divert rubbish from landfills. In just five years, the country has brought the average electric recyclables to 9.5kg per person compared with the European Union average of 5kg.

Every bag of rubbish to be thrown away has to be taken personally to the dump and the cost is E5 (RM21) per bag. If you want the local council workers to come collect the rubbish for you, then you have to pay E8.

Thus, it only makes sense to recycle here.

Convenience is priority where recycling is concerned. You have to sort out your trash according to the labels on the banks.

Everything is welcomed except food scraps, wet clothes and carpets. The recycling services provided by local authorities are mainly free, although there might be charges for certain items or for large quantities.

There are three types of public recycling facilities -- "bring" centres, civic amenity centres and recycling centres.

Throughout Ireland, there are almost 2,000 "bring" centres. These are collection points for recyclable materials like glass, paper, textiles, food packages and drink cans.

Civic amenity centres, on the other hand, are custom-built, staffed and have specific opening hours.

There are about 100 civic amenity centres in Ireland and they accept more items, including electrical equipment, fluorescent tubes, waste oil, DIY waste and construction and demolition waste.

Like civic amenity centres, the 80 recycling centres around Ireland are also staffed and gated, and have specific opening hours. But they accept a smaller variety of items than civic amenity centres.

Finally, there is the kerbside collection of separated waste (known as a "green bin" collection) which may be run either by the local authorities or private companies.

Some local authorities even provide a "brown bin" for organic waste. If the organic kerbside collection service is not available, it is not unusual to see compost bins in backyards.

The passion to recycle is catching on here and if you are not recycling, you certainly do not belong to the people of the earth, so to speak.

Come winter, as I savour my cup of tea and apple pie by the fireplace and hear the crackling fire hungrily devouring the newspaper bricks, I will feel the pride of my hands glowing and know that I have done my bit for the environment.