Cork County Council urged to install reverse vending machines at amenity sites

Cork County Council has been urged to install reverse vending machines in the authority’s amenity sites to “level the playing pitch” for smaller retailers as councillors expressed fears that it would lead to people taking their business to the bigger supermarkets.

Fianna Fáil councillor Gobnait Moynihan, a representative in Macroom Municipal District, suggested that many people, including those who get their shopping delivered, may not be able to use the machines.

“I think they should be put in County Council amenity sites so as to avoid the danger of people, who bring their recyclables to that location, changing their patterns in order to bring their refundable bottles to the bigger supermarkets,” said Ms Moynihan.

Debate

Many councillors got involved in the debate.

Cobh-based Labour councillor Cathal Rasmussen said that a recent Dáil question by his party colleague, TD Seán Sherlock, had prompted the disclosure that 6,000 retail premises across the country had secured an exemption to the scheme and that 2,000 of these had been smaller shops and supermarkets.

“If you want to avail of the scheme, you must go to the bigger supermarket and avoid the smaller shops,” he said, pointing out that this was leading shoppers to bypass town centres to go to the larger shops on the outskirts.

“I do appreciate that this is the start of a process,” he said, adding that he hoped these challenges could be overcome in the weeks ahead.

Confusion

Fermoy Fine Gael councillor, Noel McCarthy, who is also the proprietor of an off-licence premises, said his shop was simply not big enough to accommodate the machine and that the scheme was causing confusion as some bottles didn’t have the necessary barcode to avail of the refund.

“It’s just another tax, and it’s driving people mad,” he said.

In a written response, director of services Louis Duffy said that the authority did not have a responsibility “to provide or support any part of the service”.

“However, we have engaged with the Regional Waste Office in Limerick in respect of issues that may arise in the deployment of the service, such as provision for collection of containers that may be rejected by machines and also in respect of disabled persons’ access to use the machine,” he said.

He said the council would also continue to promote the service on its website and pointed out that the local authority sector would be launching its own national waste management plan this week.