Charities clean up as clothing deposits at recycling sites fall

Charities are “cleaning up” by selling off old clothing as textile deposits at local authority recycling centres plummet.

However, eastern European gangs are reportedly continuing to raid many of charities’ clothing banks.

The disclosures came as Cork County Council’s environment directorate said the 254.30 tonnes of clothing deposited at its 11 recycling centres in 2015 fell to 80.72 tonnes last year.

Council officials agreed with north Cork councillor John Paul O’Shea that most leading charities were now operating their own clothing banks. Details were not given of how the council disposed of its textiles, commercially or otherwise.

Private clothing gangs also illegally remove clothes from charity collection bins.

St Vincent de Paul estimated more than €1m of clothing had been stolen from its collection units by the gangs which smuggle it out of the country and sell it off at markets in Eastern Europe and Africa.

Mlr O’Shea said that while he did not begrudge the charities earning valuable cash from old clothes, it was worrying that the council was suffering decreasing revenue from this source, which was used to prop up the operation of civic amenity sites.

Council officials confirmed glass bottle recycling increased at council sites last year to 6,015 tonnes from 5,948 in 2015.

However, food cans fell from 119.65 tonnes to 93.06 tonnes and drinks cans were also down from 74.03 tonnes to 63.14 tonnes.

Some charities are also making money from recycling these items, much of which are exported to China and India.

Meanwhile, other councillors expressed concern at the amount of illegal dumping of refuse which was occurring in the county, with Fianna Fáil councillor Ian Doyle saying it was becoming a big problem in rural areas.

Special anti-litter ‘hit squads’ used by the council are getting increasingly busy.

The council sent out the squads on 475 occasions last year to areas which had significant dumping issues. They collected a total of 174.39 tonnes of illegally dumped waste after 1,093 recorded complaints from the public.

Last year the unit picked up 170 tonnes of waste.

County councillors, concerned about increased dumping of litter in the countryside, also complained about the removal of waste bins in many towns and villages.

However, officials advised the bins were removed due to the dumping of household rubbish.