Bid to halt ‘pay by weight’ recycling in County Cork

Cork county councillors have urged their officials and the Deparment of the Environment to either postpone or scrap pay-by-weight charges for recyclable material which are to be introduced on July 1, because it will lead to “mayhem” and “illegal dumping”.

At a meeting of the council’s western division in Clonakilty, Councillor Christopher O’Sullivan (FF) said the directive, which comes from the EU, was basically pointless because it would lead to mass littering in the countryside.

It has emerged that the local authority cannot put proper computerised weighing scales into its 11 civic amenity centres in time to cope with the supposed deadline date, which has yet to be signed off on by a ministerial directive.