Calls for wheelie bin service for glass bottles in Waterford
Cllr Thomas Phelan said wheelie bins are used instead of bottle banks in other countries. Stock image.
A Waterford councillor has called for wheelie bins for glass bottles to be collected by refuse companies.
Councillor Thomas Phelan asked Senior Executive Officer in the Environment Department, Dawn Wallace, if she could write to the Minister for the Environment to see if there were plans to move toward private domestic collection. He said at the February sitting of the Dungarvan-Lismore District Council that other countries use wheelie bins instead of bottle banks.
“All the bottle banks along the road are unsightly and a thing of the past if you ask me,” said Cllr Phelan. Cllr Phelan also asked if it was a legal obligation to provide clothes banks, which have been the site of repeated littering in the county.
Ms Wallace said she was aware of the litter at bottle banks and that it is an EU requirement for waste to be separated for collection.
“We are obliged to collect separately, and Ireland has not been doing brilliantly on recycling, so one of the drivers for having those separate collections is by bottle banks, because the alternative is to have just two in the county, which wouldn’t be reasonable for people to take all of their glass to those sites,” said Ms Wallace.
As of this year, that applies to textile waste.
Ireland has chosen to meet that obligation through clothes banks.
“We will at some stage be looking at a tender for those clothes banks, but we are looking for the best operating one to put it in place,” said Ms Wallace.
