COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, November 08, 2010

QUESTION NO. 13

QUESTION: Councillor W. Lavelle

To ask the Manager for a detailed breakdown of the cost of the Christmas Tree recycling service in 2009 and to request that a similar service be provided in 2010 noting that it would not be appropriate to ask residents to cut-up Christmas Trees and put in their brown bins, in particular in the case of elderly residents or those with reduced physical ability?

REPLY:

The Council provided a Christmas Tree recycling programme from 6th to 16th January 2010. The total cost of the programme was €41,500. A total of 16,701 christmas trees were shredded at 47 locations around the county. The main costs involved were labour (1280 manhours) and machinery (woodchippers, tractors and trailers).

Of the 16,642 trees recycled, 6,419 trees were processed in the Lucan / Palmerstown / South West Clondalkin area, 8,557 were processed in the Templeogue / Knocklyon / Rathfarnham / Limekiln area, 1,167 were processed in the Clondalkin area, 434 were processed in the Town Centre / Old Bawn area and 65 trees were processed in West Tallaght / Saggart / Rathcoole area. The cost of the programme works out at €2.48 per tree recycled.

The matter of providing a christmas tree recycling programme in January 2011 is under review and no final decision has been made at this stage.

It should be pointed that the brown bin is ideal for the disposal of Christmas trees and would save residents from having to bring the trees to any other location and enable the speedy disposal of the trees as the first brown bin collection in 2011 is the week commencing 10th January.