Council set aside a day to talk rubbish!

Donegal County Council is going to set aside a day to talk rubbish!

The matter arose when councillors were asked to note the Draft National Waste Management Plan for a Circular Economy during the monthly plenary meeting of Donegal County Council in Lifford on Monday.

Cllr Patrick McGowan said there should be no opportunity to monopolise the waste management in the county or region and that the option of pay by go along with pay by weight should remain.

“Every day I’m out I see more national and international contractors on the road and I’m afraid once they monopolise it we will lose total control. It needs to be kept affordable.

“We should also strive to lower the cost of recycling both at home and in the recycling centres.

“I think there are more opportunities becoming available all the time to get value from some of that recycling.

“We should be supporting responsible behaviour not rewarding those who are just throwing their rubbish over the ditch or into the river.

“There is still an awful lot of illegal dumping but you can't be penalising those who want to do things right.”

Cllr Ciaran Brogan said he felt the subject warranted a special meeting or at the very least a workshop to discuss the different challenges they were facing in the county, how they were being serviced and the costs involved.

“It’s a very important issue for us all and by us not giving it the time it deserves it is wrong. To be fair to the council we have been very innovative over the last number of years with litter wardens, litter strategies and recycling centres.

“There’s also an awful lot of good work being done by people in our environment section too.

“The schools and the communities have also been absolutely brilliant with things like clean-up days but I think we should definitely set a day aside to have a proper conversation about our own policies going forward, the challenges we are meeting and how we can improve the work we are doing,” he said.

The council’s director of water and environment services, Michael McGarvey, said the various points raised in the council meeting had already been raised with the regional waste management planning office at the council’s Strategic Policy Committee meetings.

He suggested all elected members could attend their next SPC meeting at 2pm on Wednesday, June 28 to discuss the Draft National Waste Management Plan for a Circular Economy and they then could follow up with further workshops if necessary.

Public consultation

Council cathaoirleach Cllr Liam Blaney pointed out the draft plan would be on public consultation until July 5 and the public is invited to make submissions through an online submission box at www.mywaste.ie/nationalwasteplan or they could e-mail their submission to nationalwasteplan.ie or if they wished they could post their submission to Donegal County Council’s office in Lifford by 4pm on July 5.