Donegal County Council's commitment to recycling the county's waste has been confirmed by the appointment of a qualified environmental scientist as recycling officer.
Catherine Hannon this week described herself as an environmentalist who is determined to meet the council's targets on the amount of waste to be recycled in both the short and long term.
She has extensive experience in both the private and public sectors since she graduated from the University of Ulster in Coleraine and completed post graduate studies at Queen's University Belfast. She carried out an all-Ireland survey on the tern population around the coast.
Her appointment, as part of the implementation of the county council's waste management plan 2001, will be complemented in the near future by the appointment of a waste education officer and a waste regulation officer.
"I was delighted to learn that the council plan to appoint these two additional waste officials. It shows they are taking the recycling aspect of the plan very seriously," Ms Hannon said.
The target of increasing the amount of domestic waste recycled to at least 50 per cent over the next five to seven years has already begun with the 2,600 bins already in use around the county.
The number of bring-bank centres for recycling around the county will be increased by 12 come March, bringing the total number to 50. Glass, aluminium and some tin are catered for at these centres, but Ms Hannon plans to widen the range of goods to be accepted for recycling to include, paper, cardboard, plastic and textiles.
While vandalism of bins that were used on a trial basis to collect textiles created a problem in the past, Ms Hannon hopes to bring on board one of the major charities who will benefit from textile recycling and use their experience in designing a vandal-proof collection bin.
The civic amenity site in Carndonagh will be used as a prototype to expand recyclable material collection, and once tried and tested will be extended to other sites in the county.
"One of my main aims for the coming year is to ensure collection bins for recyclable paper and plastic. Making bring banks easily accessible to the public is also one of our aims," Ms Hannon said.
She highlighted a recent positive development in the county where a supermarket and garage had each agreed to have bring-banks located on their property.
Having worked for a time with D·chas on Special Areas of Conservation, particularly in relation to the ecological elements of such designation, Ms Hannon is anxious to promote sustainable waste management policies which will protect the environment.