ERP Teams Up With Early Childhood Ireland and Launches a Battery Recycling Competition For Preschoolers

With the requirement for batteries going up by 75%** with every new child, The European Recycling Platform, (ERP), Ireland’s only pan-European compliance scheme for electrical and electronic waste and battery recycling, has teamed up with Early Childhood Ireland which represents preschools and daycare centres nationwide to promote battery and electrical waste recycling amongst children in their pre-school years.

Early Childhood Ireland members throughout the country are being asked to get collecting used batteries and fill up the ERP battery recycling boxes provided to their facility. ERP will be collecting the full boxes throughout the year and each participating facility will be in with a chance to win an ERP Recycling Party with face painters, balloon modellers and more. They will also win a trophy and a book voucher to the value of €250.

ERP has also worked with Early Childhood Ireland to develop an educational pack that will be distributed to its member childcare facilities in ERP’s jurisdiction of Fingal, Monaghan, Cavan, Clare, Limerick, Kerry, Louth and Meath. The pack contains fun activities to educate children about the importance of battery and electrical waste recycling in a fun and engaging manner.

This competition is part of an on-going commitment from ERP and Early Childhood Ireland to put recycling and sustainability at the heart of the pre-school educational agenda.

Speaking at the launch of the competition, Yvonne Holmes, Communications Manager, ERP Ireland said, “At ERP, we truly believe that the youth of today are the recyclers of tomorrow and we are continually looking for ways to educate children about the importance of battery and electrical waste recycling. Teaming up with Early Childhood Ireland has provided us with the perfect platform and we are delighted to support this programme and their environmental education initiatives into the future.”

Irene Gunning from Early Childhood Ireland added “Preschool is the first rung on the education ladder and the foundation of STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) skills through a play based curriculum. It makes sense to educate young children about the benefits of recycling as early as possible in a fun and engaging way and our childcare professionals nationwide are already doing this. The ERP campaign builds on the many Green programmes already
underway in Irish preschools and Early Childhood Ireland is delighted to spearhead this programme, with the hope that it can be rolled out to all of our members nationwide in due course.”

The battery collection competition is open to childcare facilities in Fingal, Monaghan, Cavan, Clare, Limerick, Kerry, Louth and Meath. For more information, please log on to www.earlychildhoodireland.ie/ERP.

Ends.

**The survey was carried out online from 13-22nd Sept 2011 among members of Empathy Research’s IdeasPanel through their Omnibuzz© survey which was quota controlled to be nationally representative of 18+ year olds in the Republic of Ireland. Total participants 1,002.

Gallery of Images from the Launch of the Battery Recycling Initiative

For more information please contact:

H+K Strategies (Enable Javascript to see the email address) / 01 669 0030 / 087 268 9532

About ERP:

The European Recycling Platform was set up in December 2002 by Braun, Electrolux, HP and Sony in response to the introduction of the European Union’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive. ERP’s mission is to ensure cost effective implementation of the directive, for the benefit of the participating companies and their customers. This is achieved through innovative waste management strategies and by encouraging national implementation of the directive according to a set of core principles, fundamental to the protection of consumers and business, as well as the environment.

ERP is the first WEEE compliance scheme to be permitted and to launch operations in multiple European countries and thus the first scheme to pass on the advantages of multinational recycling operations to the consumer. ERP has proved to be the most competitive solution for companies in the countries where it has started to operate.

ERP is already operational in thirteen countries – in Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, and the UK.