Under the ‘Ringo’ initiative, ring can holders are collected from each class and sent to Hi-Cone in Cork to be recycled. This scheme has been a tremendous success in the school, with each class competing to try and have the most ‘ringos’ collected at the end of the week. Though this is supposed to be a Fifth Class project, we have children from Fourth Class administering it. The local off-licence has agreed to get involved and has taken a ringo box.

What is Ringleader?

This is a project on plastic and packaging which is administered by Fourth Class. It introduces a new recycling idea for schools which involves the plastic ring can carriers found on food and beverage multi-packs. In the trade, these carriers are known as Hi-Cone.

Who are the sponsors?

ITW Hi-Cone, the Irish subsidiary of an American company which produces ring carriers from its plant in Mallow, Co. Cork, is the main sponsor, with support from:

 An Post

 Plastics Industries Association, affiliated to IBEC

 Dow Chemicals, one of the leading manufacturers of plastics

The project encourages a class to recycle waste materials that are recyclable, thus considering the local environmental issue of waste management. It focuses on one particular item, Hi-Cone carriers, and outlines a scheme to recycle them. These carriers are small and clean, and experience shows that collecting them is easy for pupils, making minimum demands on space and orginisation at schools.

All rings collected and sent back to the factory in Mallow will be reused to make new rings, therefore lessening the demand for new raw materials and removing some waste packaging from our refuse.

How long has this project been running in Irish schools?

This project was carried out in Ireland on a pilot basis in 1995. Fifth classes in primary schools in South Dublin and Wicklow worked on it during May and June 1995. In 1996 over 100 schools in Dublin, Cork and Limerick carried out the project while in 1997 over 170 classes were involved when Waterford joined the scheme. In 1998, Wexford was included and 200 schools participated.

Do schools in other countries take part in the project?

Ringleader programmes are running successfully in many countries:

 UK - over 1000 schools across England, Scotland and Wales

 Spain - over 70 schools in Madrid and Barcelona

 Iceland and Australia - both have launched similar Ringleader programmes.

What does Hi-Cone do with the returned materials?

The Ring Leader scheme is unusual, if not unique, in being a fully CLOSED LOOP RECYCLING programme. ITW Hi-Cone guarantees that all collected Hi-Cone carriers will be recycled and will be made into new Hi-Cone carriers. This programme can therefore help to:

* reduce refuse collection and disposal costs

* save space at landfills

* reduce the use of oil-derived resources

* save energy

Once received by the factory, the returned carriers are sorted, cleaned and chopped into flakes before re-entering the production process as new raw material.

DID YOU KNOW that Hi-Cone carriers are made of low-density polyethylene adapted to be photo degradable? On exposure, the material becomes progressively embrittled, tending to break up as a result of wind, rain or wave action.