A BALLYVOLANE social enterprise project is one of only five initiatives nationally to be shortlisted for this year’s Get Involved sustainable communities competition.
Boomerang Enterprises, with whom the Evening Echo has teamed up for Get Involved, received a site visit this week from judges, including Duncan Stewart, Johnny O’Hanlon and representatives from SEAI and Clann Credo, which provide social finance for community growth.
Photographed during a site visit to Boomerang Enterprises, Ballyvolane Business Park, Cork, by judges and the co-ordinating group of the Get Involved competition were (from left) Johnny O’Hanlon, co-ordinator; Paul Kelly, project manager, Boomerang Enterprises; Bernie Connolly, Cork Environmental Forum co-ordinator; the four judges Anja Murray, Ruth Buggie, Duncan Stewart and Lisa Moran looking at an attic stairway insulater, a future product.
Picture: Denis Minihane.
Judges were impressed by the local mattress-recycling initiative, which opened 18 months ago and now accepts and recycles 200 mattresses a week from civic amenity sites, furniture shops and public customers as far afield as Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford.
Products of the recycling process include metal springs, which are recycled, wood that is sold on-site as kindling, and materials that are currently the subject of testing by DIT researchers (in the hopes of using them as building materials in the future).
In addition to providing a viable alternative to landfill, Boomerang offers up-skilling and training of TUS scheme workers, supporting their progression to more secure, long-term employment.
Mr Stewart said, following his tour of the premises: “I’m very, very impressed and I think all of us judges are.”
He added: “I have to say that what we’re seeing here is a really true exercise in social enterprise, but it’s also a sustainable enterprise,” praising the training scheme in particular.
Mr Stewart said that “I can see this becoming huge and doing lots of things.
“I can see massive opportunities with it and this should be going on everywhere in Ireland.”
Speaking about the shortlisting, Paul Kelly, project manager, said: “My opinion is it’s a great accolade to be suggested as a possible runner, initially.
PJ Field (left) and Daniel McSweeney dismantling a mattress for recycling and reuse.
Picture: Denis Minihane.
“To reach this far is fantastic. I’m humbled by the whole thing, really.
“I’m here every day and I do see the benefits of the social enterprise model.
“It works, we’ve proven that it works, and it’s a necessity.”