Dublin councils sending garden waste to landfill

Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council have confirmed they are sending garden waste to landfill because they have no green-waste recycling facilities.

At present, there are no recycling facilities for garden waste in Dublin City Council, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council or Fingal County Council.

Only South Dublin County Council (SDCC) has a green-waste centre at Esker Lane, Lucan, where it shreds and composts hedge clippings, tree prunings and grass cuttings.

The resulting product is used in its parks and sold to householders and landscape gardeners.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown council collects and shreds green waste at its Ballyogan centre and some of this is sent on to Esker Lane. But the authority confirmed much of it goes to landfill.

Green waste presented at Ballyeally dump in the Fingal council area also goes directly to landfill and there are no centres in Dublin City Council where green waste can be brought.

In the last four years almost 23,000 composting bins were bought in the four local authority areas but they are unsuitable for recycling woody materials or large volumes of garden waste.

Other Dublin local authorities encourage householders and commercial landscape contractors to bring their green waste to the SDCC centre.

However, under the conditions of its Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) licence the site is only allowed to take up to 5,000 tonnes a year, falling far short of the needs of the Greater Dublin Area.

Dublin City Council had operated a green recycling centre in St Anne's Park, Raheny, but it was closed in January following local opposition and An Bord Pleanála's refusal to give planning permission for a larger facility on the site.

The councils are hoping to open large green-waste recycling centres at Ballyogan, in the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown area, and in Kilshane Cross off the N2, in the Fingal council area.

Dublin City Council also plans to open a centre at Labre Park in Ballyfermot. But each of the centres will require planning permission and licensing from the EPA and could take a number of years to be opened.

Meanwhile, landscape contractors have called on Dublin's four local authorities to provide more green-waste recycling facilities in the Greater Dublin Area.

They say they are concerned that capacity will be reached at Esker Lane and they will have nowhere to bring their waste.