Finally - Dublin Corpo are recycling plastic!

[Anthony <antg@gofree.indigo.ie>]

Greetings all,

Two weeks ago, I was pleasantly surprised to discover two bins for plastic
collection at the Rathmines Corporation Depot. There were was one for PET
bottles and another for packaging. Up until now I had been saving up all my old
plastic bottles until I was able to get the use of a car to bring them all the
way to Navan Amenity Centre.

I talked to another friend who lives in Stoneybatter and he told me that there
are also bins for plastic at the Grangegorman Depot. I'm sure there are more
such facilities in Dublin but when I went to the Corporation website I couldn't
find any reference to the fact that they now facilitate the recycling of
plastic.

It really annoys me that Dublin Corporation has such a half-hearted approach to
recycling. For all their waste management rhetoric, they really drag their heels
when it comes to putting schemes into practice. Even if they do provide the
facilities, there is no encouragement to use them. Householders and businesses
still have to transport the waste material themselves. I'm lucky that I live
close enough and am fit and able-bodied that I can carry material? by hand
myself.

I was talking to a staff member of the newsagents next door and asked him if
they recycled the old papers. He told me that they had looked into it but they
would have had to pay for it to be collected and they were already paying rates
to cover the cost of commercial refuse collection. 'Why pay extra for something
that they were already paying for?' was their understandable attitude. 

There is also very little advertising of the Bring Centres. I only discovered
the one in Rathmines by accident. There are small signs -with an even smaller
recycling logo- at each end of Mount Pleasant Avenue roughly pointing in its
direction. It would not break the budget to publicise the facilities by putting
up posters in public places such as Shopping Centres. Public libraries (run by
the corporation) would be ideal. The Corporation website informs the user that
the facilities exist but does not provide detailed information about the type or
condition of material that can be recycled. Eg. It doesn't say anywhere that
paper with plastic isn't suitable for recycling. 

This has unintentionally turned into a bit of a rant, but I feel strongly about
this issue. I appreciate that the Corporation is making steps in the right
direction with the problem of waste management. But there is no point providing
facilities when it wouldn't cost very much to inform those members of the public
who are interested.

That's all for now, (My chest feels a bit lighter)
-Anthony Geoghegan.


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