Tag Archives: Feidhlim Harty

Féidhlim Harty, director of an environmental consultancy company tells Bridget Ginnity, how being a bad windsurfer led him to specialising in reed bed system design and other eco-friendly sewage options. For as long as I can remember, my family was interested in environmental things of various sorts, whether it was beach clean-ups, chemical or sewage pollution in Cork Harbour area. My grandmother was Myrtle Allan of Ballymaloe House. When she was president of Euro-Toques, the global society of chefs, she had us children filling envelopes and addressing them to all corners of the globe. We watched the early European legislation on food being developed and it was a real education that you can bring your opinions directly to the table and decisions will be made that reflects that input. I set up my business in constructed wetlands as an activism measure in the ’90s. I wanted to clean up Cork Harbour using reed bed systems, mainly because I was a …

In our most recent Make A Difference article here Bridget Ginnity explored how we can control our consumerism and waste generation. Here she profiles a group and an individual tackling waste in different ways Christy Collins, Shannon Men’s Shed We pick up old stuff from the recycling centre and do them up, bikes, old timber and so on. We use wood we get to build outdoor furniture of the primary schools, buddy benches, picnic benches, bug hotels and so on – maybe we need buddy benches in parks for adults too. We upcycled old steel seats from Shannon park for the new wetlands area, and they’re like new. We are lucky to have a premises in the industrial estate, with three workspaces and a meeting room. The meeting room is the best part of it, it’s great to see men talking, an alternative to the pub We make all kinds of thing. We have a woodturning lathe that is great …