In the past
Carndonagh's Recycling Centre worked for a decade as an exemplary facility taking back most of the materials. People did appreciate it in separating and returning their household waste in a disciplined manner. Bringing recyclates was generally free. The official recycling rate all over the county was 31% in 2008.
Currently
May 2009 the Donegal County Council imposed charges between 10 and 60 Euro and even higher on most of the recyclates brought to the Recycling Centre. Some of the materials are no more taken at all. The consumer price for recycling and ordinary waste removal are identical in this county. The result of that politic has been dramatic. The amenity sites are almost abandoned. Fly tipping and back yard fires have increased since. One after the other of such scandals could be seen in the local media and poses a real threat not only on our tourist industry. The recycling rate in Donegal is down to 15% at current stage, which is the second last rank after Carlow (13%). The Irish Government's target of recycling household waste is 75% until 2013.
Outlook
Ireland is paying increasingly more fines for not forfilling the European specification of 67% recycling. Removing garbage from the country side costs the County Council at least 1,000 Euro per metric ton. Hundreds of new tons have already been spotted. Tourists are no more coming back. Recycling goes dramatically down. More waste is ending up on landfill or anywhere else in our environment.
Not a fraction of that damage already caused can really be paid off by any of those charges at the Recycling Centres. The Donegal County Council's politics need a u-turn in that matter. People should be encouraged for recycling, not being charged for.
Amenity Centres in Donegal should be free of charge for all recycling!
Ireland needs its own recycling industry. Instead of paying twice when we are shipping the recyclates abroad and then reimporting the raw materials again, we could create sustainable jobs in the country.
Citizens Against Recycling Charges (CARC), c/o Charlie Williams, Carndonagh, email: charlie2williams@live.co.uk
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Government's target of recycling household waste has gone up to 75% until 2013. I don't know how they want to achieve that.
ReplyDeleteI sent many letters concerning recycling in Donegal to the "green" minister John Gormley. I haven't got a single reply until present day.
The County Council has also been ignoring CARC until present day, despite the fact we handed over almost 4,500 signatures only from Inishowen people June last. Only Deputy Charlie McConalogue showed up at a public meeting October last. He had to admit that the charges are too high.
But nothing has been done so far. And the Recycling Centres are still almost vacant!
Charlie, Was the decision to charge at the recycling centre taken at council level and if so who were the Inishowen councillors that signed off on this disaster
ReplyDeleteThe decision was taken by the Council, mainly David Friel, County Officer for Waste and Recycling is responsible for this resort. Can you post me your e-mail address, Tremone? Then I can send you more details.
ReplyDeleteHi, I was one of the many people who appreciated the recycle facility in Carndonagh as being an innovative, forward thinking move by the Donegal coco and both applauded them for it and made extensive use of the facilities offered on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteOn a Saturday, I would go up there with my kids and there would be many other people of all ages there, all linked in a communal "feel good" atmosphere, thinking we were doing what we could to help with dealing with the awful problems we have in this country of waste disposal. If big industry forces all this excess packaging on us, surely the thing to do is to bring it to a facility where it will be recycled and maybe even help the local authority to make a few bob on it too! But when we heard that they intended to spend (I think) 1.3 million? on doing up an already successful facility that needed nothing more than a few well chosen directional lines and signs, and intended to charge ridiculusly high prices for the privelige of getting rid of something we neither need nor ask for in the first place, I knew instinctively that this was one of the worst ideas ever concieved by the Donegal County Council.
WHY did they ever think this would be a good idea?
You know what? It's NOT! I'm not an engineer, nor do I have degrees in business management or anything else for that matter, but the dogs in the street knew this was going to be a disaster.
So what happens now?
In my house, I still believe in recycling. My family and I keep our plastics, cardboard and milk cartons, and even though we can't dispose of them for free anymore, we still believe that they should be kept out of landfill. They go to the local, PRIVATELY OWNED Logan & co waste disposal company. How does this benefit the Council? It doesn't! and there's your problem. For now, instead of the general public showing up every week with tons of unwanted plastic etc. for recycling, they're paying someone else to do it for them - at least they come and collect it!!!
Now that the council has made this colossal mistake, and have realised themselves that IT WAS NOT A GOOD IDEA,it's time they knuckled down and accepted that the huge bills they're now paying to remove fly tipped waste from beauty spots all over the area would be better spent making up for this mess.
My solution is simple. I'm a forgiving kind of person. If they would admit that they made a mistake, and now they're in debt for it, I would gladly give them a couple of euro every time I come in the gate, with my recycling should it be a couple of bags of plastic, or a three piece suite.
I wonder how many other people out there feel the same way?
Most of the people I'd say.
ReplyDeleteCARC garthered 4,500 signatures from Inishowen people (1,100 from Carn citizens alone, that's about last local election's registered!) last year in just three weeks. We handed them over to the CoCo last June. No response from a single councillor or even the mayor until present day. Here the letter we attached to the petition:
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Dear County Councillors,
Since the re-opening of the Carndonagh Recycling Centre people are being charged a tremendous amount of money for most of the goods they are willing to return. Hence the usage of this place has dropped dramatically. As a consequence we are already seeing an increase of fly-tipping and, with more back yard burning, toxic fumes are being released into our atmosphere.
This facility worked extraordinary well, and was widely appreciated and used by the people.
Now we read that the Donegal County Council is installing CCTV cameras to track illegal dumping in the area. How many thousands of cameras would we need to cover just Inishowen where there are hundreds of places for man to get rid of his waste in the countryside? What would that cost? Would this installation project be the new plan for introducing sustainable jobs?
New sustainable jobs could indeed be put into place if plastic, cardboard, etc. were recycled here in Ireland instead of being shipped abroad at high transportation expense. These raw materials could then be used to produce those plastic and paper products we are currently importing from other countries, also at high transportation expense.
If there is currently a deficit in what the council makes on some items, that should be offset by the profit made on other materials. Recycling pays off in the long term, and the value for it is rising over the time.
I personally don't know any other European country where you are actually charged for returning recyclable items to facilities available.
Inishowen wants to attract more (eco-)tourism. At the moment I cannot imagine that tourists coming to this beautiful peninsula to enjoy its extraordinary landscape, seeing all that rubbish in our fields, forests and mountains, will return or recommend others to visit us.
Plastering our natural environment with masses of CCTV cameras can truly not be the answer to that problem. More new places will easily be found to dump more waste.
The modern name for our Recycling Centre now is "Civic Amenity Centre". Does that mean it is a convenience for the citizens to carefully separate and return the goods to a central place?
No! People have put an effort in doing so. And on top of that they should now pay for this trouble?
This is unacceptable!
All goods returned to the "Recycling Centre" should be free of charge!
Waste management has to be for the good of all people, and for taking the best care of our environment.
Regards,
Charlie Williams, Carndonagh
Spokesperson for Citizens Against Recycling Charges (C.A.R.C.)
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At a public meeting in Carn on the 5 October 2009, Charlie McConalogue, deputy mayor at that time, had to admit that the charges are too high.
But nothing has been done so far.
This year's St. Patrick Free Recycling Saturday CARC was counting more than 600 visitors (excluding multiple visits) making a use of the Carndonagh Amenity Site. On an ordinary Saturday there are maybe 15 people using the pay area.
Therefore a lot of rubbish has ended up in the countryside or is being burnt.
Some strategy, County Council.
Bravo to our "representatives"!
Funny. Normally David Friel, Donegal's county officer for waste and recycling, publishes news and achievements about his department.
ReplyDeleteFor example the official quota of recycling for household waste in Donegal for 2008 was 31%.
Government's target until 2013 is 75%. David Friel was hoping to collect more recycling as the council opened five more amenity sites allover the county in May 2009.
I haven't heard any news or data about 2009 or even 2010. Did I miss something there?
From December 2010 on Logan reduces charges for recycling bin by 50%!
ReplyDeleteFrom then on only one tag for the blue bin (still two tags for the black bin).
That makes sense!
I hope people will recycle more therefore.
But when is the County Council going down with those ridiculous charges at the Recycing Centres?
It's time to act, Councillors!
Charlie Williams
From: Charlie Williams
ReplyDeleteTo: Donegal County Councillors and County Manager
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2010 12:49 PM
Subject: Recycling Charges
Dear County Council,
Logan Waste has halved their charges for recycling collection. Emptying the blue bin costs €5.50 from December 2010 on.
When will the County Council abolish - or at least come drastically down with - the charges at their recycling centres?
Those charge, introduced May 2009, have brought the county, in particular the Inishowen peninsula, into a disastrous situation of fly tipping and backyard burning which has caused a multiple of the damage already than any of those charges at the amenity sites could have paid off. The usage of the pay part of Carndonagh Recycling Centre - where one can return plastic, paper, cardboard, tetrapacks, scrap metal, bulky items etc - has decreased by an estimated 80-90%!
Only when recycling is remarkably cheaper than waste going to landfill, people will take on that little burden to seperate and bring their recyclates to the centres.
The politics of charges have failed and cost everyone of us much more than free recycling at the centres in the long run.
Please reconsider the charges at the recycling centres. It is for the good of all the people in Donegal.
Regards,
Charlie Williams
Citizens Against Recycling Charges (CARC)
Except of a read receipt from the secretary of the county manager, I have again not received a single reply to my open letter to the County council. Our "representatives" are again IGNORING the will of the people who elected them!
ReplyDeleteWatch Addicted to Plastic
ReplyDelete"The all-island Ulster Bank Business Achievers Awards final takes place in Dublin on April 14. Among those set to battle it out with the best of Irish companies are some of Northern Ireland's most innovative set-ups
ReplyDelete...
Envirogreen Recycling Ltd.
Established in August 2009, Tyrone-based Envirogreen Recycling Ltd is a multi-award winning environmental services company that provides bespoke recycling solutions to commercial clients and councils throughout Ireland.
Envirogreen Recycling has become the first company in Ireland to introduce a mattress recycling service for commercial clients..."
(Belfast Telegraph, Tuesday, 5 April 2011)
So it is even possible to recycle mattresses in the neighbouring county. Why does the council tell us then that furniture cannot be recycled?
Why haven't we heard any news about the waste management in Donegal for more than a year now? When Carndonagh was the only full recycling centre in Donegal until May 2009, why has the recycling rate not significantly gone up with five (!) more centres in the whole county.
The policy of charging for recyclates at these "Amenity" Sites has totally failed. People are hardly using these recycling centres anymore as they're being charged there more than for the pickup service. The only conclusion can be that the county council does avoid to take any responsibility for an environmentally friendly waste management.
Therefore the poisoning of our habitat by burning rubbish and by fly-tipping is going on...
Well. It's a year ago since Logan Waste has halved their charges for recycling collection.
ReplyDeleteThe good news now: The County Council dropped the price for a car load of paper/plastic from €10 to €4.
=> Public urged to avail of price cuts at Recycling Centres (Highland Radio)
Why did it take the Donegal County Council almost three years to react. Meanwhile we've had damage of 100,000s of Euro by illegal dumping. The initiative Citizens Against Recycling Charges (CARC) has been urging the County Council to drop the charges since May 2009.
Now. Three years later all County Councillors admit that the charges at the recycling centres were too high.
It took them a while to listen to the people they are representing. But anyway, thank you for your hindsight, County Councillors. What is the price for getting rid of old furniture?