'In 10 years I've never seen as many tyres dumped'

INVESTIGATION Council enforcement officer says culprits dumped 3,000 used tyres after digging through a clay bank that the landowner had established to protect the area

Meath County Council is currently investigating the illegal dumping of a significant amount of waste tyres on forest land adjoining the R160 Trim Road near Longwood.

The incident occurred between Thursday, 12th, and the morning of Friday January 13. It is understood that those responsible for the dumping dug through a clay bank that the landowner had established to protect the area.

The Council estimate that in excess of 3,000 waste tyres have been dumped which will cost over €7,000 to collect.

It is understood that the private land owner has been contacted in relation to the tyres being collected.

Declan Grimes, Waste Enforcement Officer with Meath County Council said it was one of the largest dumpings of its nature he had ever seen.

"We’re the statutory body for dealing with this. We’ve got powers under the waste management act to look for CCTV, to seek assistance from An Garda Siochana, to bring people to court for illegal dumping, transporting waste without a permit. For someone to dump this many tyres is quite unusual. We had a case a few months ago but it was only 200 tyres. A lot of dumping involves waste oils, empty drums and tyres, so it’s usually a man and a van effort and they're collecting from back street garages for a discount. In 10 years I've never seen as many tyres dumped. It’s unusual to see this amount of tyres dumped in one location.

The person who dumped these went to a lot of effort to do it.”

In Ireland, there is a scheme where waste tyres are paid for by consumers, as Declan explains

“We will also be working with Circol ELT, which is the compliance scheme for waste tyres in Ireland. They handle 4 million tyres every year, with the collection and recovery of car tyres. .If you get a new tyre for your car you pay V.E.N.C, which stands for visible environmental management cost.

This charges €2.80 for every tyre imported into the country. As the tyre is sold to the consumer, this is displayed on the invoice, for a new tyre. It’s like a consumer responsibility initiative, producer responsibility initiative like a polluter pays principles.

Declan says that in most cases people dump rubbish when the opportunity presents itself.

"In lots of cases, the people who dump are opportunistic. They’ll be driving around in a van and if they see a gate open or if there's no fence they will drive in and tip whatever they have.

I've seen some peculiar things over the years. Once someone set up a living in a field. The people who dumped TVs, couches chairs etc. and set it up to look like a living room.

But in some cases, they will make a lot of effort by breaking gates and removing clay banks, which is unusual. It was dumped on an extremely busy road with a lot of tyres so it was probably done in the dead of night."

Meath County Council carry out regular checks with tyre merchant to make sure tyres are disposed of correctly according to Declan.

“We carry inspections under tyre regulations routinely, we'd be going around any garage selling tyres to make sure they are managing waste appropriately in terms of using authorised waste collectors to dispose of their waste. We make sure they have a sign-up on their wall to say they are Circol members. It's only €70 a year to register for Circol. We make sure they show monthly returns showing how many tyres they've purchased for that period and make sure that the environmental management cost has been paid. Last year we carried out over 40 inspections of tyre merchants in Meath.

We need people to be vigilant, if neighbours see unusual activity then they should ring the landowner and check in. People should take photos if they see anything unusual."