Housing Association supports residents to "go green"

Respond! Housing Association provide top of the range composting facilities for Residents of St. Francis Gardens, Blackpool, Cork.

As John Gormley, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government last week delivered Ireland’s first ever Carbon Budget, Respond! Housing Association quickly followed his initiative by announcing they are also supporting their residents to “go green” by providing food composting facilities on their estates. The first of these has already been installed in the housing charity’s flagship housing complex in Blackpool, Cork and Respond! are investigating the viability of similar schemes on some of their other 130 estates throughout the country.

Funded through the RAPID process & the Cork City Council Environment section, the food composting facility located in the Blackpool complex is the only indoor composter of its kind in Cork city and county. Respond! are the first housing association in Munster to provide this service to its residents and hope to roll it out on its other estates throughout the region.

Ned Brennan, Chief Operations Officer of Respond! Housing Association said: “We are delighted to be providing this composting facility to our residents in St Francis Gardens, Blackpool, Cork as it will make use of valuable resources that are regarded as waste or rubbish. Not only are our residents creating a useful, natural product for their gardens, they are also diverting debris and kitchen waste out of the waste stream and ultimately landfills.”

Composting improves the nutrients being placed back in the soil, while also reducing the need for landfill space. It also has financial benefits for the residents of Respond! as it reduces the quantity of waste to be disposed by each householder, as well as reducing the need to buy fertilizers.

“Considering the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that 85% of the waste stream in Ireland is organic waste, we felt it was important to engage our residents in the benefits of being more environmentally aware. We are very hopeful this new composting scheme in Cork will be a success and if so, we hope to roll it out to our other estates across the country” added Mr. Brennan.