COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF LUCAN AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

MOTION NO. 18

MOTION: Councillor P. Gogarty

That this Committee calls on the Chief Executive to introduce a pilot scheme in the Lucan EA whereby recycling bins are provided alongside general waste bins in public places and indoors in all buildings that have SDCC involvement in Lucan and Palmerstown, so as to prevent unnecessary materials going to landfil; and that this proposal be examined by the Environment SPC with a view to rolling out county-wide.

REPORT:

It is a requirement of the EU Landfill Directive that all municipal solid waste is either segregated at source or processed/treated at a waste treatment plant in such a way that it is separated into compostable, recyclable and residual fractions with only the residual fraction going on to landfill. It is only possible to dispose of residual waste at a landfill when the waste has either been pre-treated in this manner, or else segregarted at source, and therefore there is no waste currently going to landfill which is either compostable or recyclable. Nevertheless the Council's Environment Section in conjunction with the Environmental Awareness Officer and other Council departments concerned will undertake to examine this matter to determine what measures, if any, are required and could be implemented in this regard.

It should be noted that a review of the litter bin service was carried out by the Environment Section in recent times with a report presented on the matter to the Environment SPC in February 2017. The report did not consider the matter of street bins for recyclables and there was no request from the SPC at the time to do so. The matter will be placed on the agenda of the February meeting of the SPC for an initial discussion and to agree the scope of an examination to be carried out which would in turn lead to a pilot scheme being run, if this is deemed necessary by the SPC. 

With regard to the provision of such facilities in public buildings, this obviously concerns a number of sections and departments within the Council such as Corporate Services, Libraries and Community Services to name a few. It is proposed to consult those departments on the matter in the first instance to collect information on the existing provision of waste receptacles, arrangements for the segregation of waste in those buildings and arrangements in place for the collection of waste from those buildings. This will help to establish the current situation at each building and to identify what actions, if any, are required to be taken at each one.