Tipperary clothes banks to be removed and brought to civic amenity sites amid illegal dumping woes
At the June meeting of Tipperary County Council (TCC), councillors were informed that bring banks for old or unwanted clothing were set to be removed from locations across the county, with used textiles instead to be taken in at civic amenity sites across Tipperary.
A number of councillors raised the matter at the meeting, with councillors Fiona Bonfield, Máirín McGrath and David Dunne all saying that something needs to be done about the bring banks, which are attracting illegal dumping and rubbish.
Speaking at the meeting, Sinn Féin councillor David Dunne said that the clothing banks 'have to go'.
"I know we had plans to put them into bring centres or recycling centres, but they need to be taken out, they just have to go now at this stage,' Cllr Dunne said.
"They're a magnet for rubbish, and there's videos online and you can see recycling banks and there's just rubbish strewn all over the place, so have we cameras at those recycling bins?' the Carrick-on-Suir councillor asked.
A member of Tipperary County Council's environment section told councillors that a decision to remove the used clothing bins had been taken, relocating them to the five civic amenity sites across the county.
"We are now going to remove the bins, relocating to the five civic amenity sites, and a tender process has to happen before that.
"Tender documents are all drafted and ready to go, and we're just waiting for regional sign-off on the documents because this will have ramifications across the sector,' councillors were informed.
The five civic amenity sites in Tipperary are located in Cashel, Donohill, Roscrea, Nenagh and Clonmel.
Tipperary County Council 'can't sustain' the cost of continuing to operate the bring banks, councillors were also told, with the matter 'being a budgetry issue' which will come up at the end of the year as TCC plans its finances for the year ahead.
Cahir councillor Máirín McGrath said that the clothes bins were something she always had an issue with, but said that irregular collection of the items was a real problem.
"I have always had issues with clothes bins and the irregular collection of items there, and around it, so in one sense I welcome it, but I do have a little bit of concern, say for the Cahir LEA for instance, there isn't a civic amenity centre in the Cahir area, which is something that I've long asked for, so that's one issue, it's the ability foe people to get to civic amenity centres,' the Cahir councillor outlined.
"Secondly, it's the instances of illegal dumping that might take place as a result of that [removal of the clothes bins], or the rogue operators that were in place before the council got into this industry, where there was clothes bins popped here there and everywhere, meant to be authorised but weren't, and they caused issues as well, so I'm just concerned with the unintended consequences that this will bring,' the Cahir councillor added.
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