Tipp bring banks ‘under review’

Tipperary Co Council is currently reviewing the situation with its recycling bring banks amid increasing waste collection costs.

The council recently removed all of its clothes banks, citing high operating costs and concern that the bank sites were being used to dump rubbish. Clothing collection has since been centralised at Tipperary’s five civic amenity sites.

Last week’s meeting of the council heard that this move has proven successful, and that the remaining banks for glass bottles and aluminium cans may also be removed.

Cllr David Dunne said people are no longer dumping bags of unwanted clothes at bring banks, but that some bottle bank locations remain “unsightly” as they continue to attract rubbish. He questioned the need to have bring banks for cans, given the success of the Deposit Return scheme.

Director of Services Eamon Lonergan confirmed that the council’s bring banks are “under review”. While he appreciated that there is demand for bring banks in some areas, Mr Lonergan said people must consider the costs involved in maintaining the service.

“We’re heading into a difficult financial future,” he warned. “The cost of collecting waste and disposing of waste is going through the roof for us.”

The council recently introduced CCTV camera surveillance at six locations around the county, most of them at bring banks. Welcoming this, Cllr Seán Ryan asked for a further rollout of cameras to areas that have been identified as “litter blackspots”.

“Is there any way we can add more?” he asked of the surveillance locations. “The best money we spend as a council is grants to Tidy Towns groups; the work they do is phenomenal,” Cllr Ryan said. “It’s very disheartening for them to see rubbish dumped.”

Mr Lonergan said the council is looking to expand its CCTV surveillance scheme and welcomed ideas from local representatives for suitable locations.

CATCHMENT MANAGEMENT PLANS

Cllr Séamie Morris called for a multi-agency meeting on river pollution. He was concerned about water quality, mentioning in particular the Clareen, Nenagh and Kilmastulla rivers.

While there is much “talk” about climate change and environmental action, rivers are still being polluted by wastewater treatment plants. “It’s a serious problem and we don’t seem to have a plan to protect them,” Cllr Morris said. “We need a high-power meeting to come up a plan to protect our rivers.”

Mr Lonergan said the council has a Climate Action Plan in place and works with the relevant stakeholders where rivers are concerned. However, he mentioned that a new approach is now being taken and the council is looking at developing new catchment management plans. These are to be discussed further at Strategic Policy Committee level.

Meanwhile, the Director of Environment & Climate Action welcomed the “massive success” of this year’s mattress amnesty, whereby over 1,800 mattresses were collected from householders at the five civic amenity sites, compared to just over 1,000 last year. This was the largest number of mattresses collected since the council commenced the amnesty a number of years ago.

Funded under the Anti-Dumping Initiative, this year’s collection took place in early August. All mattresses were sent to a company in Longford that specialises in recovering and repurposing the various components of end-of-life mattresses, including foam, fibres, fabrics and other cushioning materials.