Call to print car registrations on takeaway packaging

Ministers for the Environment and Justice are to be urged by Meath County Council to allow the printing of vehicle registration numbers on meals from takeaway outlets so that people who dump wrappings on streets and along country roads can be traced.

The controversial move to write to the Ministers was passed by a majority of the councillors at Meath County Council’s monthly meeting on Monday.

Proposing a motion at the meeting, Fine Gael Cllr Alan Tobin said the onus should be put on the operators of fast food outlets to put vehicle registrations on disposable items like plastic and paper. However, some councillors were not in favour of the move, citing concerns over data protection issues. One councillor said that such a scheme might be open to abuse by a “vindictive” fast food employee who might write down the name of an ex-partner or wife.

Cllr Tobin said that the system he proposed was no different to the system of checking litterers who dumped their household waste in the country and who could be traced through documentation in the rubbish.