CCTV detected 125 offences of illegal dumping
Surveillance operations conducted by Westmeath County Council at bring centres around Westmeath have led to the detection of 125 offences, members of Westmeath County County’s Environment, Climate Action Water and Emergency SPC heard at their October meeting.
Council environmental officer Ruth Maxwell, who revealed the figures, disclosed that arising from the operations, fines amounting to €13,819 had been issued. The cost of the operation came to €13,810.
Reviewing the anti-dumping measures taken by the council so far this year, Ms Maxwell said the focus was on prevention, abatement and enforcement.
Since 2017, she said, 700 projects across 31 local authorities had been funded by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment Change with the aim of reducing illegal dumping.
In Westmeath this year, there were seven projects approved, six of which have been completed to date.
One of these was the bring centre surveillance; others included mattress collections in Mullingar and Athlone, which cost €10,789 and €5,642 respectively for the acceptance of 606 and 263 mattresses; a bulky household collection which cost €11,229 and saw 20.9 tonnes of furniture deposited; and clean-up projects at Grange Heights (€10,833) and Grange Crescent (€4,440).
Ongoing is a project at Marine View in Athlone, for which the budget is €32,325.
SPC member Jack O’Sullivan wondered where the furniture goes and whether there were any groups that would upcycle it, which could provide employment. He also queried the costs involved.
Cllr Hazel Smyth supported the view that it would be worth exploring if there were groups who would take the furniture for recycling, and SPC chairman, Cllr Frank McDermott, recalled seeing a facility in Germany where people were able to come and take unwanted furniture.
Ms Maxwell listed a host of reduce and reuse programmes that the council promotes, both to promote recycling and to draw attention to the real cost of things such as “fast fashion”.