Dublin South West TD, Seán Crowe, has criticised moves to introduce a charging regime for the green bin collection. The Sinn Féin TD stated that it is the thin end of the wedge, it will lead to more price increases for householders, and it will lead to more dumping and burning of waste.

Deputy Seán Crowe said:

“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. That is the way the private operators have worked in the past and only the most naïve will have faith in their assurances that prices will be stabilised.

“It will inevitably lead to fewer people recycling and more illegal dumping and burning of waste.

“It is infuriating for many of those who genuinely want to recycle that the government is literally standing back, giving the nod to these private operators to increase charges, and not taking any measures to encourage less waste.

“Additional charges will impact on already hard-pressed households and it will discourage recycling.”

Crowe continued:

“It is lazy policy to simply slap another charge on households instead of bringing forward a comprehensive recycling plan, with increased taxes on industries that use products that cannot be recycled. We know that there is huge waste in this area, with the overuse of plastic that is not recyclable, and this must be tackled.

“There are currently no serious attempts by the industries that produce these unrecyclable waste products to take any responsibility. They must be forced to take responsibility and individual households should not be punished with another charge.”

ENDS