COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF CLONDALKIN AREA COMMITTEE

Wednesday, November 21, 2018

MOTION NO. 11

MOTION: Councillor F. Timmons

Cathaoirleach's Business

"That this Committee asked that South Dublin County Council to look at 3 Kerb-Sort trucks to be trialled on a 12 month basis as detailed below in response to the need for recycling banks that are proving very difficult to find suitable locations

https://www.romaquip.com/kerb-sort/"

(Cost price is approx.. €200,000 or hiring is approx. €35,000 per annum. The savings made on collecting, transporting and disposal of illegal dumped waste would be massive.)

REPORT:

The kerb-sort truck as proposed under this motion is not compatible with the waste management and recycling systems which are in place in the South Dublin County Council area, as provided by the numerous waste management companies operating in the Dublin region.  It would appear from the information provided that the truck in question is divided into multiple compartments which can be assigned to different types of waste.  This system requires that the different types of waste are managed and presented separately by the customer and the truck operative then has to present the different receptacles to the truck for collection one by one.  While a compartment (or compartments) can be assigned to glass the rest of the body of the truck accepts other waste types such as food waste, paper, plastics etc.  Further information available on these trucks suggests that they are intended as waste sorting vehicles with a capacity of 4 tonnes in total which can collect all waste streams from the household in one single visit per week. 

It is very unlikely that waste management operators would change over to such a system which is obviously both labour intensive and slow to sort the waste as it is collected, while they already operate a system which is efficient in terms of labour and costs.   The system currently in place and offered to all households in the County is the 3 bin door to door system whereby householders segregate dry recyclables, food waste and residual waste in the home and present these for collection in separate wheeled bins which are collected on dedicated routes by large refuse collection vehicles usually of 15 tonnes capacity.  Glass cannot be deposited in any of these 3 bins and therefore must be kept separate and brought to a bring bank site.  All three waste streams currently collected go on to treatment and processing facilities with dry recyclables going through a major sorting process at the plant.   

With regard to glass recycling, the Council currently has 45 glass recycling bring sites in place around the County and close to 5,000 tonnes of glass is recycled through these on a yearly basis.  While it is accepted that additional glass recycling facilities are required in the North Clondalkin area every effort is being made to identify additional sites for development.