Residents to block access to waste plant
Residents who have mounted a campaign to highlight the problems they claim are being caused by the waste facilities at Churchfield Industrial Estate, are now planning to blockade the largest operator’s compound, and its fleet of waste collection trucks, unless conditions improve.
“The authorities have created a monster here,” said Maurice Sheehan, a spokesman for Northside Says No to Rubbish campaign.
“The Kinsale road landfill closed a few years ago. The Healy Blue Bins waste transfer depot on Tramore Road was closed. The Greenstar facility in Glanmire was destroyed in a fire.
“The Bottlehill superdump in lying idle and now we have a superdump in the middle of Churchfield.
“The residents here have been caught in the crossfire.”
The industrial estate is home to three waste operations — Ashgrove Bins, National Recycling and Country Clean Recycling Ltd.
County Clean, which acquired the city council’s domestic waste collection service in 2011 and took over Healy Blue Bins’ operation earlier this year, is the largest operator on the site.
It is licensed by the EPA to handle 100,000 tonnes of non-hazardous waste every year — with 48,000 tonnes sent for recovery and 52,000 tonnes sent for disposal.
There are about 200 residential dwellings within 500 metres of the site boundary.
Local residents said serious problems arose after County Clean’s operations expanded earlier this year.
Residents have complained about increased truck movements, foul odours, vermin and noise from night-time operations.
Following a large public meeting on Thursday night, they are now planning to mount a lightning blockade outside the depot, to block truck movements, and disrupt the city’s bin collection system.
In a statement last night, Country Clean said it has been operating a recycling facility at the site since 2003 without any issues.
“We are sceptical that all the current problems reported are fully associated with our site,” the firm said.
“On several occasions the odour has been found to be coming from offsite blocked sewage drains overflowing into an open surface water tank in the Fairhill area not connected to the Country Clean site.
“This may be a potential source of the rodent complaints in the area. This has already been reported to the appropriate authorities.”
The company said it was “working diligently” with the EPA, which regularly inspects the facility, and is taking every precaution to ensure the site doesn’t impact negatively on residents.
“As a result of direct communications from residents Country Clean Recycling has already began retrofitting works on its waste transfer building to make sure no odour can emanate from its site, which we hope will resolve any potential odour issues from our premises,” the statement said.
But Mr Sheehan said the industrial estate is not suited to a waste management operation of this size.
He called on the authorities to open part of the mothballed Bottlehill facility which was developed at a cost of almost €50m but has never been used.
It is costing in the region of €200,000 a year to maintain the site.
