CORK COUNTY Council yesterday confirmed that it is to begin a clean-up operation along the coastline in east Cork over the next few days after hundreds of empty plastic butter containers were washed up on the shoreline.
A council spokesman said council engineering staff had surveyed the beach at Ardnahinch near Shanagarry and believed the littering was minimal with no risk of pollution. He said a crew would be mobilised within the next few days to clean up the area.
Locals in Shanagarry and Ballycotton found the unused butter cartons washed up on Monday and it’s believed they came from a container washed overboard last month.
The containers included ones for Kerrymaid, Buttersoft and Sainsbury’s Butterlicious brands and hundreds were strewn along the beach.
According to the Irish Coast Guard, the plastic butter cartons are likely to have come from one of seven containers washed overboard from the coaster, BG Dublinsome 15 miles south of Tramore on January 12th last.
The 9,500-tonne coaster was on the last leg of its scheduled weekly service from Rotterdam to Dublin and on to Cork when the containers broke their strappings and went overboard when the ship was buffeted by Force 9 and Force 10 winds which threw up 30m swells.
One of the containers contained sodium bromate used in dyeing, a hazardous material.
According to a spokesman, the council will pursue the owners of the plastic butter containers to recoup the costs of the clean-up.