Case Study on Waste Prevention in Apartment Complexes

• Sector: Household
• Name of Partners: Limerick City Council & Sherry Fitzgerald O Malley.
• Location: Riverpoint Complex, Limerick City.

Aims of this Project:

Apartments and flats now account for 15% of Ireland’s housing stock, so the aim of this project was to ascertain what barriers exist to waste prevention and effective waste management in a city centre apartment complexes.

Project Description:

The Riverpoint complex consists of three blocks comprising 11 floors of commercial space, a bar and restaurant and 120 apartments. The maintenance and management of the facility is carried out by a local property management company, Sherry Fitzgerald O Malley. The waste management area was located in an underground car park and used by both the commercial and residential tenants. This project focused on the residential tenants only and sought to develop a waste awareness programme with them that would influence their behavior.

A series of waste audits were conducted to determine the quantity and type of waste arisings. These audits indicated that most tenants were unaware of recycling facilities nearby or access to recycling within their building.

To simplify waste management the next phase of the project was to create a new area for tenants to place segregated recyclables in. Once in place a waste awareness programme was undertaken, this consisted of posters, leaflets and surveys in two languages to explain the new arrangements to all tenants.

Further audits were conducted to determine participation levels and a follow up survey of tenant’s attitudes and behavior towards the environment was also conducted.

Achievements and Lessons:

Prior to this project only 5% of waste arisings were recycled from the Riverpoint complex and only commercial customers were participating. On foot of the intervention recycling rates rose to 20% in a three month period which resulted in decrease in bin lifts required of 22% decrease which has both an environmental and financial impact.

The project was considered very successful by the property management company and they have now used the same template in two other city centre complexes they manage.

Photos from this case study can be viewed in the Photo Gallery.

More Information:
Contact The Waste Prevention Team at rwmo@limerickcoco.ie.