How to drink wine and save the environment while you’re at it

Brought to you by Repak.

Waste is so last season!

As some of our favourite fashion brands like H&M and Levis pave the way for a more sustainable fashion future, adding an edge to the murky world of recyling, we take a look at our carbon footpath to see how well we're doing in Ireland.

1. Up to 90% of new glass can be made from recycled glass. If you're getting ready for a night out on the town, drink consciously and remember to keep your empties and then bring to the bottle bank. If you're hoping to leave future generations with a healthy-ish and useful environment, then recycling wine bottles is the way forward and it doesn't take much effort.

2. Most families throw away 40kg of plastic each year. So what do you do? Reusable shopping bags, for a start. The three cardinal rules of an eco-friendly lifestyle are reuse, reduce and recycle so why not invest in an ultra stylish recycled tote bag and banish plastic from your life. Who said recycling wasn't cool.

3. 47% of people admit to deliberately placing contaminated waste in their recycling bin. Tut, tut... don't be like Donald. Show some love and recycle your waste. Future generations in Ireland will love you for it.

Poubelleville cc @WTFBelleville pic.twitter.com/7rXTisIgn5
— Stom Regembal (@stom01) January 25, 2014

4. On average an Irish family consumes around 500 glass bottles and jars every year. But did you know that one recycled glass bottle would save enough energy to power your TV for three hours. That's three full episodes of Game of Thrones for free!

5. Just one piece of contaminated packaging can ruin an entire recycling bin. Just don't do it. If you're going to the effort of recycling put 100 per cent into it. There's so much more your plastics can do when you give them a second chance. So if you're feeling creative, do what they do in Tapei and build a castle from your bottles. The exhibition hall in Taipei was made with using a whopping 1.5 million bottles to raise awareness for recycling. There's no end to some people's talent.

If this doesn't get you to consciously think about our environment and start acting towards saving it, nothing will. Over the last 20 years Ireland has recycled high billion plastic bottles, 7 billion glass bottles, 6 billion cans and 4 million tonnes of paper and cardboard. Repak is funded by its members - members who have helped divert over 10 million tonnes of packaging waste from landfill. These members include supermarkets, restaurants, hotels, shops and many other businesses who produce packaging and are committed to meeting their obligations to recycle their packaging and help pay for the collection of your recycling bins by being members of Repak.