CORK County Council has confirmed that commercial clothes bank operators have withdrawn services from certain civic amenity sites throughout West Cork due to non-viability.
However, at a recent meeting of the Western Division of Cork County Council, councillors were told that Cork County Council is continuing to accept clothing at its civic amenity sites.
Members were told that the planning and environment directorate is actively exploring alternative service providers to reinstate clothes banks at affected civic amenity sites as swiftly as possible.
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The issue arose after Cllr Finbarr Harrington (Ind) tabled a motion, calling on the council to engage with approved operators, charities, community organisations, and relevant stakeholders to have them reinstated.
Cllr Harrington said many people contacted him, concerned about the withdrawal of the clothes bank in Castletownbere and warned that the lack of such a service could lead to more incidents of illegal dumping.
A situation that is almost as bad, according to Cllr Harrington, is that the clothes could end up in landfill.
'Clothes banks do reduce waste,' he said. 'They are vital and they do a good job. It would be a pity if they were to go completely.'
Cllr Harrington also suggested that the fundraising element of clothes banks could be lost to community groups and sporting organisations.
Cllr Ann Bambury (SD) said she too was worried about the level of landfill given over to 'fast fashion.'
She said people no longer do hand-me-downs, they seem more interest in ordering large 'hauls' of clothing from cheap providers online.
'We can no longer export this problem to poorer countries,' she added, 'because they can't deal with the sheer volume.'
Cllr Bambury suggested that a lack of official monitoring of clothes banks, and how many of the items contained within them are dumped, leads her to believe it would be better, ethically speaking, for people to use the local authority's own service.
'We live in a disposable world and fast fashion,' said Cllr Daniel Sexton (Ind Ire), who urged people to show some respect for the staff of charity shops who often arrive at to find bags of clothes dumped on their doorstep.
