Recycling centres up and down the country have seen massive increases since the pandemic started. The Estuary Recycling Centre in Swords in north county Dublin has been very busy. With traffic snaked all the way to the roundabout and queues of up to an hour and a half. 47,000 cars have joined the line in the last 3 months, dumping French horns, clocks and 2,500 mattresses, sometimes blocking the road to Malahide.

Fingal Council staff are working 12 hour days to keep up with demand, scavenging is banned and sometimes the workers get the brunt of the public's impatience, clearing out their shed in the pandemic. Henry McKean went along to get rid of his old batteries and to find out why recycling in Ireland has become a victim of its own success.