A new €35m materials recovery facility has been officially opened in South Dublin.

The Merrywell Industrial Estate facility will service the four Dublin regional authorities.

The facility has been developed to process material collected from green bins throughout the Dublin region, which includes South Dublin County, Dublin City, Fingal County and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County.

It will have the capacity to process 100,000 tonnes per annum of mixed dry recyclables.

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The provision of the Materials Recovery Facility is a specific objective of the Dublin Region Waste Management Plan 2005-2010, and will ensure the long-term stability and recyclable waste processing capacity needs of the Dublin Region.

The facility cost €36m, with 75% funding provided by the Department of Environment.

The processing equipment consists of highly sophisticated proven screening systems supplemented with optical sorting and manual quality control to separate recyclables namely paper, cardboard, tetrapak, aluminium cans, steel cans and plastics.

Environment Minister John Gormley and South Dublin Mayor Marie Corr were in Ballymount for the official launch of the system.

Greyhound Recycling will manage and operate the facility on behalf of the Dublin Region Local Authorities as part of their contract for the green waste in the region.

(PR/BMcC)