Council may use satellites to fight illegal dumps

WASTE enforcement officers working for Cork County Council may use European Space Agency (ESA) satellites to identify illegal dumps.

The council has submitted proposals to the ESA to use its satellites to add to its current use of helicopters for aerial reconnaissance and covert cameras which are placed at known illegal dumping blackspots.

More than 150 illegal scrapyards have been closed down by the enforcement team in the past four years, according to information released by the local authority’s waste enforcement department.