Recycling charge by disposal companies sees increase of glass and cans at local authority bring sites

The introduction of a charge by some waste disposal companies for disposing of recyclable materials has led to a huge increase in glass bottles, drinks and food cans being deposited at a local authority's bring sites.

The head of Cork County Council's environment directorate, Louis Duffy, revealed the increases at a meeting of the council's Northern Division.

Mr Duffy said the council took in 6,035 tonnes of glass bottles at its bring sites in 2017. This increased last year to 9,766 tonnes. Drink cans rose from 68.32 tonnes to 111.6 tonnes, while food cans increased from 99.15 to 177.2 tonnes.

Mr Duffy said that while he would like to think that householders are improving their behaviour by segregating recyclable items, the reality was "people are becoming more savvy and are looking for a free outlet" rather than paying for their disposal.

He described the increase as a "quite dramatic".

However, Mr Duffy said there was a drop-off in textiles being recycled at bring sites, primarily due to people giving them to a number of charities which have increased the amount of receptacles they have at various locations including shopping centres.

Mr Duffy said despite this, the county council would retain the textile bins it has at its own sites.

He criticised the number of people who simply dumped glass, food and drink cans outside bring site receptacles during the Christmas season. Several bring sites were littered with such recycled goods, many of which were simply dumped in plastic bags and were torn open by birds.

In the main, the receptacles were full, but instead of bringing the recyclables back home until they were emptied people dumped them on the ground nearby.

"If they are full people should take the stuff home as it is littering otherwise. There is a phone number at these sites for people to ring to get them emptied. Don't leave it up to someone else to make the phone call. They will be emptied in a few days and people can then bring the stuff back and put it in the proper receptacles," Mr Duffy said.

In response to a question from Cllr Melissa Mullane, Mr Duffy said that the council has put in covert CCTV cameras at a number of bring sites where such issues have arisen and would use the footage from them to prosecute people for littering. In total the council issued 38 fines for littering between last September and December, the highest of which was 13 in the Glanmire/Cobh municipal district area.

Meanwhile, Mr Duffy revealed that a special anti-litter unit set up by the council to clean up litter blackspots had collected 102.8 tonnes of waste in the past year.