Sherlock calls for waste services to come back under municipal control

Labour Senator Marie Sherlock has called for waste services in Dublin to fall back under the control of municipal authorities.

As private bin collection companies threaten to hike prices, Sherlock says the situation is a reflection of how “dysfunctional” waste management has become in Ireland.

She said that at present, Ireland’s waste collection system is “made up of private companies creaming profits off the collection of household waste – meanwhile, local authorities are left to clean up the mess of illegal dumping and littering, while also providing free services such as recycling and composting.”

“On top of all of that, we have Government legislating for more recycling and composting.”

“The flaw in all of this is that the Government are rightly setting down greater regulations about how waste is dealt with, but they have formed no view as to who should be doing it.”

She said that in theory, households should be benefiting from the regulations but are instead facing price hikes.

“Today we hear reports that the new can and bottle recycling scheme is cutting into margins private operator margins, which means householders are now facing the possibility of yet another waste price increase,” she noted.

Earlier this year, laws were implemented to provide all households with a brown bin, but this has not been properly enforced in Dublin.

“For the thousands of householders across the 900 streets in Dublin who have bags and not bins, they have been left with no such service,” she said.

Sherlock said that Labour has received cross-party support in the Seanad calling for “significant” changes to waste collection in Ireland but the end game should be a move away from what she calls the “current wild west system and instead see competition for the waste collection market across local authorities.”

“Ultimately,  waste services should be remunicipalised; the latest threat from waste operators should be the wake up call to Government that change is needed,” she added.