Recyling BinsArea committee meeting October 2004
Question: Councillor M. Baker:
"To ask the Manager to provide recycling bins for plastic bottles like those used for recycling glass as can be seen in the advertising campaign sponsored by the Department of the Environment that is currently showing on TV. Such bins could be added to those already in existence at recycling sites throughout the County, thus allowing the County's citizens greater opportunities to recycle plastics and ‘slim their bin'"
Reply:
"Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council provides a recycling centre for plastic at its supervised Ballyogan Civic Amenity. In addition, the planning process has been initiated to secure another supervised site in the Dún Laoghaire/Glasthule area. The four Dublin Local Authorities currently investigating the possibility of a plastics collection as part of the Green Bin service for dry recyclables. However, plastics are high bulk/low weight and value product and therefore costly to collect and manage. While a collection service could be arranged, the cost and practicalities of baling, transporting and processing plastics can be prohibitive within the boundaries of available resources. Plastics reprocessing in Ireland is limited for mixed plastics and the majority of plastic collected here goes to the U.K. and sometimes further afield, depending on markets. The priority of the four Dublin Local Authorities at the moment is to ensure every household, school and apartment has a green bin collection for existing materials by the end of 2004 (tetra pak cartons were added as a new material in 2004). When this has been achieved, the possibility of adding more recyclables will be investigated. A feasibility study is currently being carried out regarding the collection of plastics in the Dublin Region and I expect that the Local Authorities will use the results to make further decisions on the best option with regard to collection."