Updates

Ways To Recycle Food Waste

With National Food Waste Recycling Week just gone by, it is the perfect time for households to rethink and reduce the level of food waste generated in their homes. 
 
Food waste is transformed into renewable energy and fertilisers for agricultural use. Every tonne of food waste recycled instead of ending up in landfills can prevent about half a tonne of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. (Source: mywaste.ie) 
 
We at Barna Recycling would like to use this time to encourage and help all our customers to implement better ways to recycle food waste through our waste management tips and techniques, which will help households save money and reduce environmental impact. 

barna waste compost

Types of Food Waste 

According to the Department of Communications, Climate Action & Environment (DCCAE), there are three types of food waste thrown out: 

  • 60% is Avoidable food waste– Plate scrapings, leftovers, gone off fruit and veg and passed its date perishables 
  • 20 % is Potentially Avoidable food waste– things like bread crusts, potato skins 
  • 20% is Unavoidable food waste– general rubbish such as banana skins, eggshells, and chicken bones 

Paying some attention to the food we waste and making minor changes to how we manage our food daily can help make a massive difference to our overall food waste and manage carbon emissions. 

food waste veg

 

 Top Tips to Minimising Food Waste 

Below we have outlined some of our top tips to help your household minimise and effectively manage food waste. 

  • Having an organic/food waste bin in your kitchen makes it easier to manage your food waste. You can use this bin to dispose of vegetable peels, eggshells, bones, leftover seeds, etc., while cooking and after. This bin, once full can be emptied into your Brown Barna Recycling Bin. Food waste in the brown bin gets treated and turned into compost. 
  • Paying attention to food waste: Many of us repeatedly waste the same foods. If you’re putting food in the bin, take a second to ask yourself – ‘Why did this end up as waste?’ once you know what foods you are wasting the most and why, you can identify simple actions you can take to avoid food waste.  
  • Try to reuse and re-consume as much as possible: As much as possible, try not to toss out any leftover food in good condition. You can always store that leftover lasagne you had for dinner in the fridge and reheat it again for lunch the next day.  
  • Get Creative: Try making an alternative dish with food almost near its expiry date. For example: Use leftover fruit to bake buns, cakes, crumbles, or other desserts. Bread that is going stale can be used for French toast, to make bread and butter pudding or as croutons for soup or salad. You can make hash browns or patties with leftover mashed potatoes. Click HERE and explore some fantastic recipes. We promise it won’t be long until you have a new favourite dinner! 
  • Plan your meals Creating a meal plan for the week and meal prepping in advance can help you save time and get the most out of your produce. 
  • Shopping Smart: Be sure to check your fridge and cupboards in advance and list all the items you need before heading to the supermarket for your weekly or monthly grocery haul beforehand. Sticking to a list will ensure you effectively manage waste by reducing consumption and buying less. 
  • Home Composting Composting at home is one of the best methods to dispose of food waste. As compost is rich in nutrients and great for your garden, shrubs, or even indoor plants. It is an excellent way to get the final use of your leftover food. You can have a read of our helpful composting guide here. 

home composting and food waste

 

Benefits of a Food Waste Bin 

Having a separate bin for food and organic waste (brown bin) is highly recommended for individuals and households. Using a kitchen top caddy lined with a compostable liner is one of the most effective ways to manage food waste efficiently and has many benefits, such as: 

  • It helps you be more conscious of food wasted  
  • Minimises the amount of food waste created  
  • The food waste in the brown bin can be composted to be used as high-quality fertiliser for soil 
  • The food waste can also be processed into renewable energy such as biogas which can be used to generate electricity 
  • Reduces your overall carbon footprint and saves money 

 

Barna Recycling’s Brown Bin for Food & Organic Waste

The Barna Recycling Brown Bin is specially designed for kitchen and organic waste. The waste in this bin is taken to our purpose-built composting facility with the capacity to manage 40,000 tonnes of organic waste annually. Here the waste is processed into compost for use as a natural, high-quality fertiliser for use by farmers and horticulturalists. 

barna video food waste

Watch this video from mywaste.ie on How to Separate your Food Waste 

 

What Can Go into My Brown Bin? 

  • Food Waste (Meat, Fish & Poultry cooked & uncooked) 
  • Leftover food 
  • Bread & Cereals 
  • All types of Pasta/Rice/Noodles 
  • Coffee Grounds and Filters 
  • Dairy – Cheese & Yogurts 
  • Fruit & Vegetables (Rotten & Peels) 
  • Tea Bags/ Tea Leaves 
  • Egg Shells Paper Towels/Napkins 
  • Organic Garden Waste 

What Cannot Go into My Brown Bin? 

  • Glass 
  • Metal 
  • Cans 
  • Clothes & textiles 
  • Oils 
  • Plastic Containers, wrappers, and bags 
  • Nappies 

Visit our website to view the complete list of items that can and cannot be put into your Brown Barna Recycling Bin. For more information on reducing your food waste, contact a member of our team on 091 771619. 

 

Overview Of Barna Recycling’s Household Mobile App Update

*COMPETITION TIME! *

We are giving four lucky customers the chance to win up to 6 months of free service (up to the value of €190.00) by Downloading the New Version of the household App
Any customer who has downloaded and logged into the App from 1st December 2021 to 30th April 2022 will be automatically included in the draw. Winners will be notified via email.

With a range of new and improved features, the upgraded version of our mobile app has been designed to help you manage your waste and recycling needs.

  • For Android users: Simply uninstall the existing Barna Recycling App on your phone and search for Barna Recycling in the App Store and install the new version.
  • iPhone users, on the other hand, should notice an automatic update of their existing app to the upgraded version.

Below we have provided an overview of new features and updates of the mobile app for effective household waste management.

Key Features & Benefits of Barna Recycling’s Household Mobile App

 

  • Improved collection reminders: make sure you turn on your notifications
  • View your collection calendar.
  • View your bin collection history.
  • Monitor the weight of the waste disposed.
  • Pay and/or top up your account and view account transactions.  Use Snap Pay to safely and securely save your credit card details to the App and pay your Barna Recycling bill.
  • Add Direct Debit details through Account Support.
  • Contact our customer support team through Account Support for any queries

Overview of New Features

Below is an overview of new features we have introduced as part of our latest upgrade.

  • Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s): A new FAQ section is now available to provide customers concrete answers to their questions surrounding billing, payments, collection and bin queries and additional services.

  • Update Contact details or address: We have introduced quick and easy steps for customers to update your details on the app. *Once updated it can take up to 48 hours to reflect on the app*

Customer Account Support

What would you like help with today? Find solutions to common problems or get help from a customer care agent. Contact us.

Logging In and Security

To login to the household customer mobile app, you need to have your Barna Recycling user account number and PIN ready.

If you have forgotten our pin – you can recover it through the ‘Recover Pin’ option.
We have also added two-factor app authentication as another layer of security for our customers when accessing features and areas within the app that contain your personal or financial information. My account, Snap Pay and Support. This will require customers to confirm they are authorised to access the data listed.

A One Time PIN (OTP) will be sent to either the email or mobile number associated with the Barna Recycling Account via SMS. Upon entering the OTP, the App will confirm if the Passcode is correct. Once the customer clicks on Confirm Code. They will now have full access to the App.

They will only have to do this once per device. If they download the App to a second device, they will need to enter OTP for that new device.

Easter Colouring Competition 2022

waste collection services

Enter our Easter Colouring Competition open to children from Junior Infants to Sixth Class.

Download HERE:
Category 1 – Junior, Senior Infants & 1st Class – Download here
Category 2 – 2nd, 3rd & 4th Class – Download here
Category 3 – 5th & 6th Class – Download here
Category 4 – Special Category – Download here

Feel free to email this onto any family or friends with kids!

To enter send a photograph of entries to 
competition@barnarecycling.com

Prizes Per Class
A Smyths Toystore voucher for all the winners!
Each class category will receive a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place voucher.

Best of luck and we hope you have fun!
 
Category 1 – Junior, Senior Infants & 1st Class – Download here
Category 2 – 2nd, 3rd & 4th Class – Download here
Category 3 – 5th & 6th Class – Download here
Category 4 – Special Category – Download here

Easter Colouring Competition 2021

waste collection services

Enter our Easter Colouring Competition open to children from Junior Infants to Sixth Class.

Download HERE:
Category 1 – Junior, Senior Infants & 1st Class – Download here
Category 2 – 2nd, 3rd & 4th Class – Download here
Category 3 – 5th & 6th Class – Download here
Category 4 – Special Category – Download here

Feel free to email this onto any family or friends with kids!

To enter send a photograph of entries to 
competition@barnarecycling.com

Prizes Per Class
A Smyths Toystore voucher for all the winners!
Each class category will receive a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place voucher.

Best of luck and we hope you have fun!
 
Category 1 – Junior, Senior Infants & 1st Class – Download here
Category 2 – 2nd, 3rd & 4th Class – Download here
Category 3 – 5th & 6th Class – Download here
Category 4 – Special Category – Download here

What to do with confidential waste when working from home?

2020 has brought about many new challenges for us all. One of the most topical has been the switch to working from home and the discussion around this new norm going forward.

We have had several inquiries over the past few months about what our customers can do with confidential waste when working from home. Confidential waste refers to documents possessed by any company that can expose discrete information about suppliers, customers, or employees.

Read more

Managing Garden Waste

waste collection services

This month’s blog looks at how you can manage your larger garden waste such as garden furniture, storage containers, gardening tools, outdoor toys, and hazardous materials. As we are nearing the end of the summer months and school is due to recommence soon, we often find that Barna Recycling customers are looking to dispose of such garden items that are broken and no longer needed.

We had some fantastic summer sunshine in the earlier parts of the summer, which encouraged us to get outside and work on our gardens. Children also needed to be entertained during lockdown so new toys and garden gadgets were brought in to help keep them busy. Some of you may have had long serving garden tools and sheds that were due an upgrade and want to know for to recycle and or safely dispose of these large garden items.

Read more

What to do with: leftover food, garden waste, old clothing and glass bottles?

waste collection services

As restrictions are lifting and the promise of some summer sunshine in July approaches, we can finally begin to feel a small sense of normality come back into our lives.

As many of you will remain working at home for a while longer, we want to make sure we are helping and assisting our customers as best we can. Since lockdown began, you may have noticed an increase in the amount of waste being disposed of in your home and community. We know there has been great discussion among the Barna team about the increase in our food shopping. This has been noted around the country too, as people are searching for solutions to increased food waste.

According to the Department of Communications, Climate Action & Environment (DCCAE) there are 3 types of food waste thrown out:

  • 60% is Avoidable food waste – Plate scrapings, leftovers, gone off fruit and veg and passed its date perishables
  • 20 % is Potentially Avoidable food waste – things like bread crusts, potato skins
  • 20% is Unavoidable food waste – general rubbish such as banana skins and chicken bones

Reducing your food waste is one area which all households can benefit from. It all adds up, less food waste equals less spend on food, which means more money to spend on the things you love.

The national programme on Food Waste Prevention in Ireland is StopFoodWaste.ie.  A helpful website providing tools for planning and shopping, storage & cooking, and composting your food waste.

Here at Barna Recycling we encourage our customers to think ‘ingredients’ not ‘leftovers’.

What can I do with leftover food?

  • Turn dinner into lunch
  • Use leftover fruit to bake buns, cakes, crumbles, or other desserts.
  • Make soup out of leftover vegetables
  • Left over Sunday roast meat? You can use it to make a pie
  • Portion and store – For example you can split large loafs of bread into more manageable portions, freezing the excess. Allowing you to defrost the required amount each time.
  • Bread that is going stale can be used for French toast, to make bread and butter pudding or as crotons for soup or salad.
  • Tomatoes can be blended with some herbs and spices to make a sauce for use in pasta dishes.
  • Leftover mashed potato can be made into hash browns or croquette potatoes.

Don’t have a favourite recipe? Click HERE and explore some amazing recipes. We promise it wont be long until you have a new favourite dinner!

To encourage the fight against food waste the Food & Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations has put together this brochure for families.

 

Garden Waste

As there are whispers of a hot July coming just around the corner. More and more of us will be out gardening again. Have you ever wondered what your options are when it comes to disposing of grass and other garden materials?

Firstly, garden waste consists of leaves and flowers, grass and weeds, tree bark and pruned branches, clippings and twigs, home-grown fruit or vegetables. – mywaste.ie

Your disposal options are:

  • Grass cycling – the natural recycling of grass by leaving grass clippings on the lawn when mowing. Once on the ground the grass clippings, which contain 80-85% water, decompose quickly returning valuable nutrients like nitrogen back into the soil.
  • Brown Bin – if you have a brown bin, you can use this to dispose of your garden waste.
  • Composting at Home – is a fantastic way to reduce the amount of weight in your bin and reuse in your garden for planting.
  • Civic amenity sites – garden waste can be brought into recycling centres at Ballinasloe, Cartrontroy Athlone and Carrowbrowne

For bigger garden projects, where you may be relaying your lawn, landscaping, cutting or removing hedging, you can always higher a skip. This will then be brought to Barna’s purpose built composting facility.

If you are considering starting to compost at home, here is a handy guide to get you started.

For more information about how to be greener in the garden and use less chemicals, you can find some great information here. This is extremely helpful in the fight to save our bees.

For those of you that may not know, one third of our bee species are threatened with extinction from Ireland. That is why the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan exists. This plan aims to get everyone coming together to try to create an Ireland where bees (Pollinators) can survive and thrive. You can learn more about the plan here.

Some simple tips to make you garden pollinator friendly include:

  • Cutting it less frequently to allow wildflowers to grow and provide food
  • Plant bee friendly flowers and herbs
  • Don’t use pesticides or chemicals and manually weed instead
  • Provide shelter such as earth banks, dry stone walls or bare soil for bee nesting

 

Clothing & Textiles

 

Since the easing of restrictions, we have noticed a lot of people have done home clear outs. More so wardrobe cleanouts.  With many customers calling us to discuss what their options were when it comes to disposing of and recycling clothing and textiles.

Here are our top tips:

  • We always encourage customers to re-use where possible, but some items will not be suitable for re-using or recycling. These items are best disposed of in a clothes bank. Where they will then be sent off for shredding and re-purposed, not for new clothing but for example furniture stuffing.
  • Unwanted clothes or other textiles that are in good condition can be donated to charity shops or given to friends and family. We’ve even had customers make pillows out of old clothing!
  • There are now several online platforms that allow you to swap or re-sell your clothing, such as Facebook Marketplace & Depop.
  • Civic Amenity Sites – clothes can be taken at recycling centres – see here

So, the next time you go to throw out clothing, remember to Swap, Donate or Recycle instead!

 

Bottle Banks

 

We want to remind our customers that all types of drinking cans, soft drinks and alcohol can be put into your blue recycling bin.

If you need to dispose of glass bottles, visit your nearest bottle bank, if they are full, please don’t leave your items on the ground. Take them home and call back another day or visit your local amenity site.

Some tips for bringing items to a bottle bank are:

  • Remove all caps and corks from bottles but do not place the caps in the Recycling bank – these can be put into your blue bin at home
  • There is no need to take the labels off when you are preparing your items for recycling
  • Always remember to wash out your bottles and jars and drink cans before recycling
  • Separate the different colours into the correct bins
  • Don’t put crockery or drinking glasses in bottle banks – as they have a high lead content and contaminate the glass recycling process leaving the whole load of glass unsuitable for recycling
  • Don’t dispose of steel food containers in bottle banks – as they are made up from different materials to those contained in aluminium drinks cans

If you would like any further information on what has been discussed in this month’s blog please get in touch with us on 091 771619.

An update on our household waste disposal strategy during Covid-19

Barna Recycling is committed towards taking all the necessary precautions possible to ensure a continued and uninterrupted flow in the provision of our services. We would like to let our customers know that our wheelie bin and skip services are still operating, and customers will be notified well in advance of any changes to our operations that may arise in the future. We would like to assure all our customers and employees that we are strictly following the HSE guidelines and doing the best we can to reduce any risks.

Read more

Easter Colouring Competition

waste collection services
If you’re hearing…”I’m bored” being thrown around at home – here at Barna Recycling we have something to help!

Barna Recycling wish to announce our first ever – Home Schools Easter competition!

Download HERE:
Category 1 – Junior, Senior Infants & 1st Class – Download here
Category 2 – 2nd, 3rd & 4th Class – Download here
Category 3 – 5th & 6th Class – Download here
Category 4 – Special Category – Download here

We wanted to give kids a fun activity to work on during their time at home – so we have decided to go ahead with our annual Easter competition but with a few small changes.  

Feel free to email this onto any family or friends with kids!
**You can post your entries or alternatively
you can photograph/ scan entries to 

competition@barnarecycling.com **  
Stay safe everyone!

Unfortunately, by the time we get around to sending out your prizes – Easter eggs will no longer be in shops – but we’ll be sure to get something sweet in the post to our winners!

Best of luck and we hope you have fun!
 
Category 1 – Junior, Senior Infants & 1st Class – Download here
Category 2 – 2nd, 3rd & 4th Class – Download here
Category 3 – 5th & 6th Class – Download here
Category 4 – Special Category – Download here

Covid-19

Putting Out Your Bins and Covid-19!

Barna Recycling has taken all precautions possible to enable us to continue to provide our services. We are doing what we can to reduce the risks to all our customers and employees and are strictly following the advice of the HSE.

We are asking all our customers to take additional steps when disposing of their waste and presenting their bins for collection:
Present your bins for collection the night before, collections times may vary as operations change to meet the evolving situation

  • Disinfect handles of bins before and after collection
  • Wipes, cloths and gloves can be placed in their general waste bin
  • If households are self-isolating / quarantined, they will need to manage their waste outlined by the HSE. Click HERE for further details

We have already taken a range of operational steps to protect the service we provide for you. Our essential services are continuing to operate through a blend of remote and on-site working. It is possible that we may suffer reduced capacity in answering your calls to our Contact Centre if the Covid-19 situation persists. However, in the meantime we have several online options available to you so you can get the help you need.

Download our FREE Household App HERE Our app is designed to help you manage your waste and recycling needs.

  • Contact us through Account Support.
  • View your collection calendar and collection reminders.
  • Pay and/or top up your account and view account transactions.
  • Monitor the weight of the waste disposed.
  • View your bin collection history.

Visit BarnaRecycling.com to find answers to general questions you may have.

You can Login into “My Account” to avail of services tailored for you.

  • Contact us through Account Support.
  • Pay and top up your account
  • View your collection calendar

Contact our customer care team by email Domestic@BarnaRecycling.com or alternatively through Contact on BarnaRecycling.com

Our Household team are here to discuss any queries you may have about your waste management plan and can also advise you on ways to minimise your costs by recycling your food waste and recycling materials as much as possible.

 

Civic Amenity Site update – 07-05-2020

Civic Amenity Sites Covid 19 – Update 7th May 2020