Cork City’s €400k 'robotrees' like using 'bathroom sponges in Midleton' to combat flooding

The devices use moss to filter pollutants from the air. They also serve as a bench. But critics branded them ‘robotrees’ and a waste of public money

The four-metre high 'CityTrees' on Grand Parade, Cork City, use moss to filter pollutants from the air. File picture: Larry Cummins

An expert in atmospheric chemistry says the time has come for Cork City’s robotrees to be “junked”.

Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at UCC, John Sodeau, a founding director of its Centre for Research into Atmospheric Chemistry, said Cork City Council must accept that it got it wrong on the €404,000 CityTrees or moss walls project and simply plug them out and dump them.