COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
QUESTION NO.18
QUESTION: Councillor Joanna Tuffy
To ask for an update on what the Council does with material left at the Ballymount Civic Amenity, including, cardboard, plastics, paints and electrical goods? How much is recycled and how? In relation election posters left there after recent elections, what happened to these posters afterwards and was, for example, there a market for recycling corriboard from these posters that the Council made use of?
REPLY:
The Civic Amenity at Ballymount is operated by Panda Waste under the terms of a service concession agreement with SDCC. All waste accepted by the operator at the facility is managed by the operator, including the making of arrangements regarding further treatment of waste and the need to export certain waste types which cannot be processed further at home.
The table below gives tonnages of waste accepted at the Civic Amenity facility in 2018 under the relevant waste streams. None of these waste types are sent on for disposal, any waste which cannot be recycled is sent for energy recovery at the Poolbeg Waste to Energy Facility with the exception of paints which are exported for recovery. Some of the waste streams such as plastics cannot be recycled in Ireland and are therefore exported to a variety of facilities in Europe and beyond. The corriboard election posters are included with other plastics and are exported for recycling. The bulky waste accepted at the facility makes up a large portion of the overall tonnage, this waste is broken down into it's component parts such as timber and metal and is recycled along with those waste streams. Any part of the bulky waste which cannot be recycled is added to the waste going to Poolbeg for recovery. There are no exact figures available for the portion of bulky waste being recycled, however it is estimated to be two thirds of the total. If this is the case then from the total of 18,251 tonnes accepted at the facility 6,431 tonnes (35%) is sent for energy recovery while 11,820 (65%) is recycled or composted.
| Waste type | Tonnage accepted in 2018 | Recycled, recovered or disposed |
| Residual waste | 3,637 | energy recovery |
| Green waste | 1,478 | composting |
| Paper and cardboard | 388 | exported for recycling |
| Glass | 115 | recycled |
| Metals | 587 | recycled |
| Plastics | 83 | exported for recycling |
| Timber | 2,323 | recycled |
| batteries | 11 | recycled |
| Bulky waste | 7,787 | recycled/recovery |
| Oils | 30 | recycled |
| WEEE | 102 | recycled |
| Paints | 198 | exported for recovery |
| C&D waste | 1,512 | recycled |
| Total | 18,251 |