169 TONS OF GLASS TAKEN FROM BANKS
Louth County Council (LCC) collected 169 tons of glass from bottle banks in the local area during the festive period. Responding to criticism from local councillors at the January meeting of Drogheda Municipal District, who claimed many of the banks around town were full to overflowing at Christmas and should have been emptied more often, Director of Services with LCC Paddy Donnelly said the council had put a number of measures in place and had collected some 169 tonnes of glass over the period.
‘ The bring banks were serviced on the 21st and 22nd and again on the 28th,’ he said. ‘ They were emptied again on January 2nd.’ He said the sheer volume of glass being recycled meant it was impossible to keep the banks empty over Christmas but said a number of regular collections were carried out. The issue of illlegal dumping was also raised by councillors at the meeting who said the problem was getting out of hand with a small number of people creating the vast majority of the pollution on local streets and in estates.
‘We’re continually talking about this problem but nothing is being done. Generally, this dumping is happening in the same areas all the time. It’s getting to the point where some citizens think it’s okay to dump waste. I would ask that this is the year that we take pro-active action,’ said Councillor Paul Bell. Councillor Kevin Callan said there was an ongoing issue with dumping at the Mell bring bank centre.
‘ They’re dumping cots, they’re dumping toys. Some of the stuff has been so that long it’s grown over with vegetation,’ he said. ‘It’s the same in Murdock’s carpark, people are dumping behind the bringbanks.’ Councillor Frank Godfrey said the constant dumping at bring banks around town and in various local estates was a serious situation from a health and safety point of view. Commenting on the dumping problem, Mr Donnelly said: ‘We do recognise that this is an issue. We have directed two clothing bank operators to remove their clothing banks because they are poorly serviced and often overflowing and they are becoming a magnet for illegal dumping. The operators are not at all happy with this but we felt it was the only appropriate course of action to take.’ He said the council had also gone through a number of bags of dumped rubbish over the Christmas period and 13 fixed penalty notices have been issued in the last week for illegal dumping.
‘I think it is important to acknowledge the ten gold medals received in the Tidy Towns and our IBAL status. ‘We are spending €2m on street cleaning which is basically us cleaning up after people who feel it is our job to clean up after them. If we didn’t have to do that we could put that money into other initiatives,’ he said. Senior Engineer Pat Finn said 450 fines were issued for littering during 2017.