Latest thing I’ve been working on is the provision of recycling bins in Sallins. It’s something that’s always irritated me to be honest, that there were no local facilities, and it’s been into Naas or down to Clane with me and my bottles for the past several years.

The Naas facilities are close enough by but they’re overcrowded and awkward to access e.g. the ones at Tesco are in a very tight little corner of the car park. The Ballycane ones are better with open space in front and the Osprey/KCC campus has them but it’s something every village should have and Sallins and Kilcullen remain the only large villages in the county without.

So after Christmas I finally cracked. With a stockpile of glassware and empties of various sorts I resolved not to recycle until I could do so locally. First week of January I rang the Council Environment Section and spoke to Dara Wyer whom I’d dealt with previously when I kicked off my composting operation a few years back. Dara explained the council and himself as Environment officer were very keen to get such facilities in place but the locality had to meet them half way with site provision etc. There were a number of regulations such as access for the collection lorries, distance from residences, safe and open access, secured monitored site and so forth which had to be met.

I already had the Waterways campus (next to the train station) in mind as it is a mixed use development combining retail (SuperValu, Dominos, Ladbrokes), offices, services (medical centre, pharmacist, crèche), residential (apartments) and leisure (hotel). When I approached the owners, GK Developments they were willing to facilitate providing there was no imposition on themselves or their tenants. Similarly SuperValu as the anchor tenant were quite open to the idea. It’s a common pattern to bundle your recycling and your shopping and if there’s an increased footfall they won’t have any complaints.

The location should also be convenient to residents in and around Monread and it gives anyone who drives to the train station the option of incorporating recycling into their commuting routine as they can offload the boot while they’re there.

At this stage the site owner, key tenants, the council and myself are on the one page. We still need to identify the exact location within the complex and the various planning conditions need to be satisfied but I would say we are a good ways there. I will keep on it and fingers crossed we will have those local recycling bins soon.

I don’t know if my back garden can take many more empties!