On the back of the hugely successful documentary ‘One Day: How Ireland Eats’, comes a new 3-part run of the ‘One Day‘ documentary strand on RTÉ One. One Day goes behind the scenes to examine the complex network of services that are essential for life in Ireland today. Filmed at multiple locations over a 24 hour day, each episode highlights one specific industry – Beauty, Cleaning/Waste and Tourism – from the perspective of the people who are expected to deliver the 24/7 service and standard we’ve come to expect.
- Episode 1, Keeping Ireland Beautiful, airs on Monday 7th January 2019 at 9:35pm on RTÉ One
- Episode 2, How Ireland Cleans Up, airs on Monday 14th January 2019 at 9:35pm on RTÉ One
- Episode 3, Showing Ireland Off, airs on Monday 21st January 2019 at 9:35pm on RTÉ One
One Day: How Ireland Cleans Up
The second in a new series of One Day documentaries goes behind the scenes with people whose job is to clean up after the rest of us. Waste and cleaning is a big business in Ireland, and vital for the economy, employing over 40, 000 workers.
On just one day, households generate a staggering 7,500 tons of rubbish. We throw away food to the value of €3 million, flush away 400 million litres of water, and dispose of 500,000 coffee cups, every day.
Coping with that mountain of waste can also be a dirty business for those involved. The documentary follows a typical day for the people who lift, sort, wash and clean-up, on our behalf.
The day begins at 5am for Jonathan Dennehy who drives a Country Clean bin lorry in Cork. Jonathan starts early to get ahead of the morning traffic in the city. In one day, he will lift over 2,000 domestic bins. Jonathan says – “there’s no point giving out about it. At school, I was known as a smiler!”
By 10am the Emerald window cleaning crew are hanging by ropes from the 11 storey George’s Quay Plaza in Dublin. It’s the start of a 3 day cleaning operation for the team of specialist abseilers whose biggest headache is attacks by seagulls!
Dublin’s Waste To Energy Incinerator runs 24/7. It’s midday and shift supervisor Robert Andrews is in the vast tipping hall where 100 tucks per day offload waste from around Dublin – “working in places like this really opens your eyes to the amount of waste we produce in the country”
At 3pm the house-keeping staff at the Woodlands Hotel in Adare, Co Limerick are busy getting rooms ready as guests arrive ahead of tonight’s wedding banquet. Cleaning supervisor Fiona Dawson is used to cleaning up after a late night for guests – “you’d know straight away it was a wedding, there’s fake tan and make-up all over the bed linen”
By 7pm, the evening shift is well underway at Thorntons Recycling Depot in Dublin. Workers on the conveyor belt are sifting through tons of green bin waste to remove the nappies, food and other rubbish that is not suitable for recycling. David Duff of Thorntons says – “that’s not a mistake. Some people put food in the green bin to cut down on costs and then someone has to hand-pick through it. People are not aware of the human involvement in waste”
Some Extra Facts on Waste in Ireland ….
- In one day we throw away one million nappies
- In one day we throw away 500,000 disposable coffee cups
- In one day we throw away food waste to the value of over €3 million
- In one day we use over 1.5 million aluminium cans
- In one day 220,000 plastic bottles of water are consumed
- In one day we wash 700,000 machine loads of clothes
- In one day we spend €360,000 on house-hold cleaning products
- In one day we use 519, 000 toilet rolls