Fingal County Council has successfully obtained a temporary High Court order to prevent a plastic recycling facility in Dublin from accepting any more waste due to fears of environmental pollution and fire hazards. The facility in question, operated by Cloughwater Plastics Ireland Limited under the name of Van Werven Ireland, is holding excess waste material that has raised the council’s concerns. Despite raising these concerns with the facility’s operators, the council has received unsatisfactory responses. The injunction, granted by Mr Justice Charles Meenan on Wednesday on an ex parte basis, requires the operators to immediately cease accepting any further waste at the facility. The matter has been adjourned to later this month, with Cloughwater Plastics permitted to seek to have the order lifted or varied on notice to the council’s lawyers. The council claims that the facility is not complying with the permit granted under the 1996 Waste Management Act, including issues over excess waste volume and a risk of strong odours. The matter came to the council’s attention last year when Cloughwater Plastics faced liquidation proceedings.
