Recycling tips
for ISHKA bottles
All our bottles are 100% recyclable.
Plastic packaging is universally portrayed as bad – bad for the environment, bad for the consumer and bad for our oceans. HOWEVER except for the latter, plastic is the most efficient co2 impact material. It has the greatest properties to protect human health, increases the use-by date of all fresh food products – therefore reducing food waste and is cost efficient. These virtues however, do not exonerate us from our obligation to protect our oceans where far too much plastic ends up. (source Repak.ie)
Ireland is now one of the leading recycling countries in the EU for packaging recycling.
This has been achieved through Repak members, recovery operators and with the help of you, the public, who recycle their packaging from their homes.
Let’s start with the basics!
Plastic bottles must be emptied
Squash bottles to compact them and make more space in your recycling bin
You don’t have to remove labels and caps – you can leave these on your recyclables as they will be removed in the recycling process (source: REPAK.ie)
Recycling is easy once you know how!
But with so many symbols it can get a little confusing so let’s make sense of it all. You will find the following two symbols on all ISHKA spring water bottles:
The Green Dot
This is a European trademark, and it means that suppliers and producers have contributed financially to the recycling of packaging in Europe. As Repak members, ISHKA Irish Spring Water can use this symbol on our packaging as we have contributed to fund recycling in Ireland.
Tidyman
This symbol asks you not to litter. It is a reminder to dispose of your waste carefully and thoughtfully.
Fact Corner
If you lined up the plastic bottles tossed away each year, they would circle our planet four times
Recycled plastic bottles can be turned into new products such as car parts, carpeting, clothes and new plastic bottles.
Cans account for about double the greenhouse gases of plastic bottles – the production of each can pumps about twice as much carbon into the atmosphere as each plastic bottle (Reuters)
Boxed water brands promote the fact that 76%+ of their carton is paper, but the rest of it is a complicated layer cake of polyethylene plastic and aluminum. Trees are indeed renewable, while petro-plastic is not.
Recycling Crafts – up-cycling fun with ISHKA bottles
Have fun with ISHKA bottle caps, buttons and stuff from the junk drawer to create shapes, animals, flowers and more. Endless possibilities for imaginative minds.
Cut our bottles in half, paint and decorate them to create cute planters for your kitchen window. Kids will need help with cutting the bottles, but can easily do the rest on their own!
Why not upcycle a recycled plastic bottle to make a bird feeder filled with seeds. A great family project for bird lovers - teaching the value of both recycling and wildlife conservation.
It’s time to put away the tablets and phones and have fun at home with this bottle cap X and O game for endless family fun. DIY crafts and hacks to make cool kids games.
Save the caps from your ISHKA bottles to make these cute little ladybugs - such a quick and easy kids craft with pipe cleaners, Sharpie marker and googly eyes. Adorable!
Create a mini greenhouse from plastic bottles - a great way to get kids interested in recycling and gardening. Keep the seeds well watered and watch them grow.
Money, money, money! Here's a really fun way for kids to keep track of their coins with our water bottle piggy bank craft. With enough creativity, anything is imaginable.
ISHKA Irish Spring Water are members of:
Ireland’s leading not for profit environmental organisation leading the recycling and sustainability of Ireland’s packaging waste. As members, we help fund household recycling bins, bottle banks and recycling centres nationwide, helping Ireland achieve its recycling targets and protecting our environment.
An initiative launched in 2018 to help Ireland increase recycling rates for packaging waste.
