Plan to move €440,000 air-purifying ‘robo-trees' from Cork to Dublin is axed
Ken Foxe
A plan to move two 'robo-trees' which cost the taxpayer over €400,000 were abandoned over concerns they could be a fire hazard or used as a climbing frame by antisocial youths.
Officially called 'CityTrees', the constructions were installed in two locations in Cork city in August 2021 to clean pollutants from the air. They have been put in storage by the council with no firm plans for their future.
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Irish Independent
27-07-2025
- Irish Independent
Plan to move €440,000 air-purifying ‘robo-trees' from Cork to Dublin is axed
Devices designed to clear pollutants are shelved over concerns they could be a fire hazard or a target for antisocial b Ken Foxe A plan to move two 'robo-trees' which cost the taxpayer over €400,000 were abandoned over concerns they could be a fire hazard or used as a climbing frame by antisocial youths. Officially called 'CityTrees', the constructions were installed in two locations in Cork city in August 2021 to clean pollutants from the air. They have been put in storage by the council with no firm plans for their future.
Irish Examiner
04-07-2025
- Irish Examiner
Planters replace Cork's controversial 'robotrees' after €444,000 spend
Planters have been installed on the bases of Cork's infamous 'robotrees' in a move city chiefs hope will draw a line under the saga which has cost taxpayers just over €444,000. The planters, complete with colourful floral displays, were placed onto the hexagonal wooden platforms left in situ on St Patrick's St and on the Grand Parade following the removal of robotrees in May. The five 'City Trees' devices, which are designed to improve air quality, had been at the centre of a storm of controversy since they were unveiled in the city more than five years ago. Made and supplied by German firm Green City Solutions, they were unveiled in August 2020 as part of wider post-covid efforts to improve the city centre environment, in the hope that they would remove pollutants from the air by filtering it through a wall of moss. The four-metre high electric-powered devices cost just over €365,000 to buy and install — money covered as part of a €4m funding allocation from the National Transport Authority — but they came with additional annual running and maintenance costs. CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB The devices were immediately nicknamed robotrees, with UCC's Centre for Research into Atmospheric Chemistry researcher Dean Venables labelling them 'a costly and ineffectual gimmick', while UCC emeritus professor of chemistry, John Sodeau, described them as a total waste of money. As controversy raged, the council commissioned a performance study on the machines in June 2022 which concluded that they provided 'no consistent evidence for improved air quality' either on the plinth upon which they sat or 'in the immediate environs' of the machines. There was more controversy in June when it emerged that even after that report, the city spent more than €23,000 maintaining the trees in 2023 and 2024. The total spend on the devices had hit €444,000 by the time they were eventually removed from the city in May and placed in storage. Efforts to find someone to take them have failed. Irish Rail had been poised to place them on a platform in Kent Station but pulled out at the last minute for health and safety reasons. Its experts said they could not take devices with flammable material such as wooden slats, and replaced the slats with non-flammable material was not possible. Both the Taoiseach Micheál Martin and former Lord Mayor, Green Party Cllr Dan Boyle, have defended the CityTrees experiment. Read More Cork man jailed for threatening to stab woman and children before stealing car from their driveway
Irish Examiner
04-06-2025
- Irish Examiner
How Cork City Council can move on from its robotrees fiasco
There has been a lot of misinformation and misconception thrown into the public domain recently regarding the 'death of the robotrees'. It's time to put the record straight. But where to begin? The very best way to get clean air in St Patrick's Street in Cork is to remove the sources of the pollutants. In other words, prevent all road transport driving along there. To start with, you need to ban all combustion engines… then later all vehicles, because tyre wear also releases the small particles that can kill us or put us into hospital. Cleaning up polluted air is, very much, a second-best strategy. My own way of thinking about this process is to imagine brewing a cup of tea. And then adding a drop of milk. Then trying to take all the milk out. Impossible. In other words, don't add the milk in the first place! Real trees, bedding plants, and 'CityTrees' on St Patrick's Street in Cork. Prof John Sodeau recommends none of the above as filters for toxic particles released by exhausts and tyres, saying chest-high hedging would be relatively effective — with the caveat that any level of particulates above zero can harm our health. Picture: Larry Cummins Air cleaning devices like the robo trees (also known as CityTrees or moss walls) were therefore unlikely to prove very effective in removing the small toxic particulates and nitrogen oxides released from road transport to the air. Starting in 2018, CityTrees were tested in Amsterdam. By 2019, they had been removed because they proved useless. Many other European cities had the same experience. There is even a Wikipedia page devoted to the history of CityTrees. Now we know the end result is just the same for Cork. The question is — why did Cork City Council undertake such an 'experiment' starting in 2021, given that the approach was not innovative or novel, and studies had already been published to show the devices were a total failure when located in the real world? Of course it's good and forward-thinking to try new things and experiment to improve our environment. But not if you know the approach is unoriginal and furthermore does not work. Whatever the council's initial motivations, there was absolutely no need to throw money down the drain over the last four years for running costs. Two of the City Trees, generally referred to as 'robotrees', on Grand Parade in Cork. They were intended to filter harmful pollutants out of the air. Picture: Larry Cummins The irony is that Cork houses the leading laboratory in air pollution chemistry in Ireland at UCC. Why did they not contact them — especially as the council apparatchiks involved in writing the National Transport Authority proposal had no appropriate scientific background in air science? If they had phoned me, then I think I could have come up with a better way of achieving their clean-up aims in a couple of hours. My answer would have been focussed on hedging the streets; not planting trees as has recently been suggested. That is because trees are not effective in removing small toxic particles and nitrogen oxides from road traffic emissions. Their main function in the urban environment is to remove the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, and to beautify the surroundings. Hedges could help Nature can still be the answer, but in the form of chest-high hedges. These act as a physical barrier to the small, toxic particles released by exhausts and tyres from reaching pedestrians. Such a height is particularly effective for protecting small children and babies in prams, who are especially vulnerable. Although it should be noted that any amount of small particulates above zero can harm our health. So, no matter how low the levels in Cork City are, they can still kill or give us cardio problems, promote asthma attacks, or cause cancer. Cork City Council officials and then lord mayor Colm Kelleher speaking to media at the cluster of City Trees on St Patrick's Street in August 2021. Picture: Larry Cummins Sadly, for whatever reasons, council representatives and employees have kept on defending the robotrees rather than owning the mistake. But things can be made good, in my opinion. Firstly, the council should make an apology to the tax-paying public for wasting money on a device that was known to not work. Then they must learn the lesson of always consulting scientific experts on matters arising outside internal expertise. Then for the public to forgive. Air pollution science is complicated. The CityTrees were badly named: They were never designed to do what real trees do for our atmosphere and our climate. But we should still keep planting trees. The ultimate answer to help improve air quality in the city is simple. Ban all road transport driving along St Patrick's Street. Instead, run communal electric trolley buses like they do in Geneva. Or build a Luas, as in Dublin. Finally, local authorities should lead and innovate by all means possible, but additionally use proven approaches to meet the complex environmental challenges we face today. • John Sodeau is emeritus professor of chemistry at UCC
