An Inishowen man has spoken out about what he describes as a “shocking” gap in local recycling services, after discovering that hard plastics are not accepted at civic amenity sites across the county.
Gerard Porter from Buncrana, a regular user of the Carndonagh Household Recycling Centre operated by Bryson Recycling, says he has always made a conscious effort to recycle as much household waste as possible. Each year, he collects plastic items from his home, storing them in bags before bringing them to the facility.
However, during his most recent visit, he encountered new requirements that have left him frustrated.“I recycle and collect my plastic all year,” he explained. “But this time I had to separate everything on site. Before, it used to go into one big bag down in the recycling centre and was sorted later. Now I had to go through each bag myself.”
Gerard said he was instructed to separate items such as milk cartons, Actimel containers, and refill pouches into different categories, with distinctions made between soft and rigid plastics.
While he accepted that separating his recycling is a nuisance for him and other customers, a more significant issue arose when staff refused to accept certain items altogether.
“They told me they don’t take hard plastic,” he said. “Things like a washing basin, plastic casing from a cordless drill, even Lego blocks, everyday items you’d find in any household.”
According to Gerard, staff informed him that such materials would be treated as general waste and sent to a landfill if he left them at the site.
“I couldn’t stand over that,” he said. “I took it all back home. Now I have a black bag full of hard plastic and no idea what to do with it.”
Gerard claims that after contacting several facilities, he was told that hard plastic recycling is not widely available in Ireland. However, he later identified companies that do accept the material, including a skip hire operator in Donegal that transports it elsewhere for processing.
Gerard also pointed to a lack of clear public information about what materials are accepted. While guidance exists online and through social media videos, he believes it is not sufficiently detailed.
“I checked the website, and they don’t say what to separate. On the website, they don’t specify that they don’t take hard plastic.”
In contrast, Gerard highlighted facilities operated by Derry City and Strabane District Council, where he says all types of plastic, including hard plastic, are accepted without issue.
“I have friends who drive up to Derry to recycle because it’s free and straightforward,” he added. “Why can’t we do the same in Donegal?”
Among the items Gerard was unable to recycle were a wheelbarrow wheel, an electric shaver case, a dustpan and brush, trampoline components, flower trays, and parts from household fixtures, all examples of hard plastic commonly found in homes.
He fears that without proper facilities, people may become discouraged and resort to illegal dumping or sending recyclable materials to landfills.
“You’re trying to encourage people to recycle, but if you put barriers in front of them, they will get fed up. They will either burn it or do something like throwing it into a skip, and they won’t know where that is going then.”
South Inishowen Councillor Fionán Bradley described the situation as “problematic” and agreed that improvements are needed.
“We are the poor relation compared to Derry City and Strabane when it comes to our recycling facilities,” he said. “We don’t have as many of them, and they’re not on as big a scale and not operated as frequently as they are in Derry City and Strabane. So we wouldn’t have to look very far to see somewhere that does it a lot better than us.”
Cllr Bradley suggested that cross-border cooperation could be one possible solution. “A very obvious solution might be to collect hard plastics in Donegal and transport them to facilities that can process them. We should be recycling more, and we shouldn’t be putting roadblocks in front of people who want to recycle.
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The Fianna Fáil councillor confirmed he would raise the issue with the council to explore potential improvements, including expanding accepted materials or partnering with external processors.