Sunflower collects recyclable material from inner city offices and community groups. These are brought back to our Shamrock Terrace depot to be sorted, graded and bailed. Our workforce is split into 4 teams. One each for the depot, sorting & transport and two in the office for administration. These teams meet on regular basis to discuss any common problems. This system promotes a personal involvement that greatly benefits the project.

Sunflower's customer base is in the inner city and caters to small, medium and large businesses. It includes several government departments and civic offices as well as D.I.T.s in the city and many well-known retailers and offices. We deal exclusively in Paper, Cardboard and Cans. All our collection staff are trained at manual handling and health & safety procedures.

For the smaller company we operate a yearly membership and collection service that is geared to the needs of the client. Large businesses are operated on a contract basis and cost evaluated on the individual customers needs.

HISTORY

Sunflower Recycling was established to create employment in Dublin’s inner city in 1995. The project employs 32 long-term unemployed via Community Employment and 6 through the Full Time Jobs Initiative.The project has achieved much more in a relatively short period. Sunflower was successful in obtaining EU funding both INTEGRA and YOUTHSTART in its early years, and was chosen as the representative project from Ireland for the conference in Barcelona. The project has a long reaching reputation for the work it does. The project has also gained recognition for recycling as an option for future job creation.

Sunflower works closely with the City council and has been involved as a partner in a Life programme with three local authorities. Sunflower was a partner in Project HeatSun a LIFE initiative brought together local authorities, private enterprise, community groups and Fás. Partners included Dublin City Council, Dun Loaire/Rathdown Council, Fingal County Council, Fingal Recycling and Micropro. Created in conjunction with Dublin City Council, Busy Bees is a Furniture removal and recycling project for Dublin.