Council to press waste operators on brown bin services

Westmeath is not meeting its targets in terms of brown bin collection services – but Westmeath County Council has said it aims to tackle the issue with local waste collectors in 2023.

Council official, Pat Murtagh, told members of the council at their monthly meeting in December that figures from the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) classified Westmeath as a “poor performer” in terms of brown bin services provision.

To counter the problem of a lack of a brown bin service in many areas, the council intends undertaking what it has termed “a process of structured engagement” with the waste collectors in Westmeath, councillors were informed.

“This process will be in conjunction with the Waste Enforcement Regional Local Authority (WERLA) and the National Waste Collection Permit Office (NWCP), with a view to effecting positive change in the uptake of brown bin usage during 2023,” Mr Murtagh said. Mr Murtagh explained that since 2016, the Household Food Waste and Bio-Waste Regulations have required that all areas with more than 500 households should have access to a brown bin collection service.

“There is a duty on waste collectors to provide a separate collection service for food waste from households, which includes the direct provision of a brown bin to each household customer,” he said.

Green Party member Louise Heavin expressed concern over the low provision of brown bins: “I think it’s important that we get them rolled out to people as soon as possible,” she said, adding that it was annoying for people to have to have their own compost heaps instead of having a brown bin available to them.

Fianna Fáil’s Cllr Ken Glynn agreed, saying it was “a given” that everyone should have them, while Fine Gael’s Cllr Tom Farrell said he believed the root cause of the paucity of the brown bin service in Westmeath was cost, and this was going to be “a major thing” that was going to have to be surmounted.

Cllr Hazel Smyth, Green Party, says she has received numerous representations on this issue on social media, a lot of them coming from people in the Rochfortbridge area, all anxious to be able to avail of a brown bin service: “I know we did a pilot at some point as well and I am just wondering whether we have the results of that and whether again, based on that, we are in a position to roll out more of these brown bins throughout the county,” she asked.

Labour’s Cllr Denis Leonard remarked that if the council was serious about the segregation of waste, it needed to get a proper brown bin service in place, and to make sure it had facilities for that to happen.

Responding, council chief executive Pat Gallagher reassured members that the brown bin service would be “an area of particular focus”.

“As you know, there are a number of operators within the county who under their licence are obliged to provide a level of service for three bins in areas where you have 500 people,” he said, admitting that this wasn’t the first year concerns had been raised about this issue.

“The director and his staff have looked at this in depth and have learned from other countries who have improved performance in this area,” he stated, going on to give an undertaking that the council intends delving into this in further depth in 2023.

“We intend to engage with the relevant waste collectors in the county and we also want to work with the National Waste Collection Permit Office and with the Waste Enforcement Regional Local Authority, and between us all we will apply our collective abilities to improve the performance there.”

Mr Gallagher confirmed to Cllr Smyth that the council has received the results of the survey conducted in Rochfortbridge and that will be taken into account.