THERE were warnings last week that the introduction of a charging regime for the green bin collection will lead to less recycling and more dumping across the Southside.
It follows the announcement last week by Ireland’s largest waste company, Panda, that it was introducing a fee for collecting recyclables.
The new charge will affect more than 250,000 homes and commercial businesses, mainly in the Dublin area.
From April 19, it will charge 80 cents per lift of recycling bins and 4.5 cents per kg of waste in these bins.
However, Panda added that charges for green bin collections will be frozen for five years.
Panda chief executive Des Crinion said the average cost of the green bin service for households, to be levied first in Fingal and Dún Laoghaire, will be €21 a year.
The new charge was necessary to support a recycling industry in Ireland, Mr Crinion said, and to avoid sending material for recycling to landfill or incinerators, as happens in other countries.
The head of the Government’s price watchdog for the industry said households across the State will “inevitably” have to pay to have their green waste recycled.
Eight out of more than 40 waste firms monitored by the Price Monitoring Group (PMG) are already charging for recycling, according to its chairman, Frank Conway.
He said the new charges being levied on consumers arose from price instability due to the closure of the world’s largest recycling market in China, where most of Ireland’s recyclable waste has traditionally ended up.
Mr Conway said the Chinese decision had “sent a shot across the bow of how we must all think about waste in the future, including how we manage it along every step of the journey, from purchase to leaving our homes”.
Sinn Féin’s Housing spokesperson, Eoin Ó Broin, said any additional charges will impact on already hard-pressed households while doing little to encourage recycling.
“Using the decision by China to shut its doors to our recycling waste as a reason behind the decision is nonsense when you consider that these plans were in place two years ago until the Government panicked in the face of strong opposition and scrapped its plans,” he said.
Deputy Bríd Smith of People Before Profit called on the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Denis Naughten, to intervene and stop waste companies from introducing green bin charges.
“This is the predictable outcome of the privatisation of waste services,” she said.
“Bin charges were justified as a way of getting people to recycle and separate waste; now they are being charged for that as well.”
Dublin South West TD, Seán Crowe, said moves to introduce a charging regime for the green bin collection was “the thin end of the wedge”.
“It will lead to more price increases for householders, more illegal dumping and more burning of waste across the city,” Deputy Crowe warned.
“Plans by waste operators to introduce a new charge for the green bin collection is the thin end of the wedge for householders and will lead to increased charges.
“It will inevitably lead to fewer people recycling and more illegal dumping and burning of waste.”