MORE THAN 500 abandoned cars are being removed from Arranmore Island in a major clean-up operation ordered by Donegal County Council.
The move follows complaints over the dumping of vehicles on one of Co Donegal’s most scenic islands.
The clean-up has been under way for more than two weeks and is expected to end this weekend. Most of the cars, and other illegally dumped waste such as farm machinery, cookers, washing machines and cutlery, are being transferred in trucks by ferry to a depot in Sligo. There they are crushed before being exported and recycled.
Those vehicles which were burned when abandoned have been crushed on the island, while the remainder were transported to the mainland for “depollution” at an authorised treatment plant. Hazardous materials such as petrol and tyres were removed before they were crushed.
Arranmore’s litter problem has its roots in a tradition of residents buying cheap, worn-down cars on the mainland for use exclusively on the island.
Because it has no Garda station, many of the 500 islanders did not see fit to tax or insure their vehicles, which were sometimes driven to the point of breakdown and then abandoned.
The practice came to an end when a number of islanders were prosecuted for driving without the appropriate documents after gardaí maintained a full-time presence during the summer months.