‘We will not tolerate this’ Northside residents protest at city waste depot

Residents who blockaded one of Cork city’s largest waste depots plan to ramp up their campaign to get it closed.

“We will be back. We will not tolerate this,” Northside Says No To Rubbish campaigner, Maurice Sheehan said.

He was speaking after about 30 residents blocked the access road to the Country Clean Recycling Depot in Churchfield, on the northside of the city, to highlight rat and odour problems they blame on the facility.

They disrupted waste truck movements for about an hour, before gardaí were called, and the protest ended.

“It took residents to come together for the Environmental Protection Agency to take action,” Mr Sheehan said.

“If we didn’t take action to stand up for our communities, for our families and our children, this wouldn’t be on the agenda. The activity on this site must be stopped.”

Fellow campaigner, Joe Brown, said the community is fighting what he described as “two dumps” close to a large residential area.

He said they hope to meet Country Clean boss, Dave O’Regan, to discuss their ongoing concerns.

But he said: “The only thing that’s going to keep me happy is if Country Clean move away from here. As long as they are there, we’re going to have a problem.”

The Churchfield industrial estate is home to three waste operations — Ashgrove Bins, National Recycling and Country Clean Recycling Ltd.

Country Clean, which acquired the city council’s domestic waste collection service in 2011 and took over Healy Blue Bins’ operation earlier this year, is the largest operator on the site.

It is licensed by the EPA to handle 100,000 tonnes of non-hazardous waste every year — with 48,000 tonnes sent for recovery and 52,000 tonnes sent for disposal.

The Country Clean site has been operational for a number of years and became an EPA licensed site on January 30, 2014.

However, the EPA had identified a poor level of compliance during six site inspections since the start of the year, and following 34 odour complaints linked to the site since May, the site is now considered “a national priority site” by the EPA.

The EPA has four active compliance investigations linked to the site, and has ordered the firm to undertake a range of improvements. The agency held a compliance meeting with Country Clean on June 6 to discuss the issues.

The EPA said baled waste is a significant source of odours and ordered the company to improve baling procedures by last Friday.

Inspectors visited the site and found that a large quantity of municipal solid waste which had been held inside a waste transfer building had been removed.

A range of other improvement works are also underway, including:

-the installation of new metal cladding on a waste handling building;

-the use of foam sealant;

-a new deodoriser has been installed;

-a temporary tarp cover has been installed on a large door pending the installation of a permanent solution;

-rapid-action doors have been ordered;

-and a decision on odour abatement works is imminent.

“As a proud Cork family-run business with over 150 employees Country Clean Recycling is working hard to make sure its premises do not negatively impact on our neighbours so we can continue to be a positive force in the community,” a spokesman said.

But residents said the site — which has about 200 residential dwellings within 500 metres — is just not suitable for a waste operation of this size.

They repeated their calls last night for the opening of a section of the €50m superdump site in Bottlehill, which has never been used.

It is costing in the region of €200,000 a year to maintain the unopened dump site.

City councillors are expected to raise the waste management operation with city management in two weeks, when council meetings resume.

While the operation is licensed by the EPA, it is operating under planning permission granted by Cork City Council.