Council goes ‘space-age’ in illegal backyard burning clampdown

A LOCAL authority has gone “space-age” with its very own eye in the sky as part of a major clampdown on backyard burning and illegal dumping.

Waterford County Council has invested in satellite technology to boost its campaign against backyard burning and illegal dumping.

The new Global Positioning System (GPS) technology will pinpoint households which are not disposing of their waste according to the law, says Luke O’Brien of the council’s environment section.

“The technology, which has a target accuracy of three metres, will enable our inspectors to pinpoint households for further investigation. It will also aid the accurate recording of illegal dumping locations and ultimately enable the gathering of evidence for prosecution of offenders,” he said.

The technology is just the latest weapon employed by the council in its fight against illegal dumping and illegal waste disposal. The new system will link into the existing GPS system installed last year on the refuse collection vehicles.

This allows the county council to monitor the use of the organic brown bin and this monitoring will be extended to the domestic refuse grey bin also.

Mr O’Brien said the county council is building a picture of waste disposal activities throughout the county. “In this day and age it is simply unacceptable for people to engage in backyard burning or illegal disposal of waste. There are enough authorised waste collectors and waste disposal facilities throughout the county to have no excuse for such behaviour,” he added.

“We are confident that this latest addition to our arsenal will prove significant in our efforts to win the war against illegal waste disposal.”