Tag Archives: waste

The people of Clare are being urged to play their part in reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill this Christmas by availing of one of Clare’s five recycling facilities. The Environment section of Clare County Council says people can bring a carload of recyclable waste to its recycling centres and transfer stations at Ballyduffbeg, Lisdeen, Shannon, Scarriff and Ennis for as little as €5. Councillor Bill Chambers, Cathaoirleach of Clare County Council, said, “I am delighted that the council’s environment section is issuing important advice to the public on how they can minimise the impact of their Christmas on the environment. “The people of Clare have always been very responsible when it comes to disposal of plastic, paper and glass materials built up over the Christmas period, and I am confident that they will respond similarly this year.” “With the Christmas holidays comes lots of extra packaging, particularly in the home,” explained Karen Foley, Environmental Awareness Officer, Clare …

A WEST Limerick group is appealing for support from residents in West Clare, in their ongoing opposition to the development of a municipal waste to energy plant in Gortadroma, which is located close to Shanagolden. Plans for a gasification plant, which converts waste matter into gas using a heat process, have been approved by Limerick councillors but has yet to receive planning permission. RAGE Limerick (Residents Against Gasification in our Environment) has organised a public meeting on the issue in Shanagolden Community Centre for Thursday, February 18 at 8pm. American company Cadence EnviroPower, who are behind the proposal, claims the process is potentially more efficient than incineration and produces 100 times less emissions. However, the Shanagolden group is concerned at the possible effects on their own area and in West Clare of dioxins emitted from the proposed plant at a landfill site, which is owned by Limerick County Council. Mary O’Connor, secretary of RAGE, says gasification is “unproven technology” and …

A campaign aimed at promoting good recycling practices and cutting down on the mountains of waste sent to landfill over the Christmas period has been launched. The Southern Region Waste Management Office has published a list of items that often end up contaminating recycling bins having been mistakenly identified as recyclable. Among the items are foil containers or crisp bags, crisp tubes, jars, nappies, plastic film and soiled packaging. “Recyclables get rejected if the recycling companies spot contamination that can spoil the quality of the recycled materials and the sorting machinery,” explained Pauline McDonogh, Regional Waste Prevention Co-ordinator, Southern Waste Region. “This waste can be very expensive to dispose of, while it also leads to more waste than is required being set to landfill,” she added. Outlining some tips for recycling, Ms McDonogh stated, “Plastics with recycling codes 1, 2 and 5 are fully recyclable and should always be put in the recycling bin. These codes are located at the base …

THERE were just nine prosecutions in relation to illegal dumping in Clare last year, county council figures show. At this week’s meeting of the council, members were told over €1.7 million was spent on running the council’s waste enforcement section over the last four years. While there have been “very few large-scale illegal dumps” in Clare in recent years, there have been increasing incidences of people dumping small amounts of waste. As well as the nine prosecutions, there were 75 litter fines in 2014. Various members voiced their disgust at the level of illegal dumping, with calls for new penalties. Councillors Clare Colleran Molloy, Pat McMahon and Michael Hillery put down a joint motion asking for information on illegal dumping, including the number of prosecutions, the financial cost to the council of illegal dumping and information on patterns of dumping, in each of the last four years. In her written reply Anne Haugh, of the council’s environment section, outlined the …

Clean Ireland Recycling, a family-run waste management business based in Cree, has cleaned up on the awards front, winning the Kerbside Collection Service of the Year Award at the 2014 Repak Recycling Awards. Run by brothers, John and Michael O’Donoghue, Clean Ireland has a large kerbside customer base of 30,000 households and their waste management service covers Clare, Limerick, Kilkenny and South Tipperary. They have a six-bin collection system, which consists of residual bins, mixed dry recyclables, food waste, glass, grass and clothes. They accept an extended range of materials in the mixed dry recyclables bin, once they are clean and dry. The introduction of the multiple-compartment collection vehicles, which are the first of their kind in Europe, has meant that Clean Ireland only has to do fortnightly collections. This, in turn, minimises disruption to customers and lowers the carbon footprint, as well as collection costs. Their pay-per-weight charging method, which applies the Polluter Pays principle, has proved successful, as …