Calls to reinstate clothes banks in Wexford dismissed by council — ‘they have become more of a detriment than a benefit’

By Simon Bourke, Wexford People

Requests to have clothes banks restored in Wexford town have fallen on deaf ears after a senior council official said they had become “more of a detriment than a benefit”.

Noting that there was nowhere for those without transport to deposit used clothes, Councillor Biddy Walsh said the lack of clothes banks locally was an environmental concern.

“I know we have Holmestown (Recycling Centre) but a woman with a little bag of clothes which are not fit for recycling in a charity shop is not going to go four miles out the road, she will just put them in the bin,” said Cllr Walsh at the monthly meeting of the Wexford Borough District.

In response, environmental engineer Hugh Maguire said clothes banks were a “problem, and one not unique to Wexford”.

“The banks tend to have small apertures and people come along with large refuse sacks, and whether they’re full or not, they say ‘feck it, I’m not going to the effort of putting that in’ and leave it to the side,” he said. “Before we know it the phones are ringing with people telling us there’s an awful mess at the clothes banks.

“Because of the dumping they have become more of a detriment than a benefit. But people can give clothes to the charity shops and there are a number of those in Wexford.”

Having had this conversation, or a variant of it, at numerous meetings in the past, Mayor Vicky Barron intervened on Cllr Walsh’s behalf.

“That’s not her point, she’s talking about the clothes that cannot go to the charity shops,” said the Mayor.

Unfazed, Mr Maguire provided further reasons for not having clothes banks in the town.

“When you put clothes banks in a location where they’re open 24/7 you’re going to have a problem (with dumping) unless you have someone patrolling the area or cameras, and we’re very limited in what we can do with cameras now,” he said.

“You can bring car loads out to Holmestown, perhaps the little woman with the bag has someone who will do that for her.”

And he pointed to new legislation which will change how clothes are recycled across Ireland.

“There’s going to be a sea change with textiles in the coming years, manufacturers will have to include labels detailing where they’ve come from. That might see more textiles being recycled through the proper channels than currently.”

On the issue of textiles and recycling methods, Cllr Tom Forde had been in contact with an organisation willing to remove all old clothes, free of charge.

“I’ve been contacted by Liberty Group, which recycles textiles, it seems to have good operations in Kilkenny and Carlow. It has been trying to get a contract in Wexford,” he said. “This group is willing to take the textiles free of charge.

“There’s a strict process for items which can’t be recycled, but this group has good operation in place for that.”

However, Mr Maguire said the council already had a contract with a company which dealt with recycling in the county.

“We’re aware of Liberty, but we’re contracted with Cookstown Recycling, it is the biggest operator in Ireland; we can’t just ditch them because someone made a presentation. We must honour our contract and the next time it is open for negotiation other operators can apply.”