'Councils should administer bin collections’ SPC hears

Local authorities should reclaim control of domestic bin collections, according to environmental consultant Jack O’Sullivan.

Speaking at a meeting of the Environment SPC, last Thursday week, he said it was “crazy” to have five lorries collecting bins in one housing estate.

He complained that the government had lost control of waste, and cited Slovenia, a one a leader in terms of waste management, where there is one, state-owned, waste collection company, and asked if we could move towards such a system.

Members were considering a presentation on plans to cut the amount of waste produced from 2.7 tonnes per person to zero, as outlined by Hugh Coughlan, regional co-ordinator, Eastern Midlands Waste Region.

In reply to Mr O’Sullivan, Mr Coughlan said that in 2012 the government decided that local authorities should leave the market because they were not able to compete with the private sector in terms of the cost of running the service. He deemed it was not possible for local government to get involved again.

Mr Coughlan said households had been given incentive charges to encourage them to segregate waste. The local government sector is going to examine how those incentives have worked and how they need to be tweaked.

The price monitoring group is being re-established by government.

Mr Coughlan said Ireland compares favourably with a lot of countries in waste management, but accepted that it was necessary to look those doing better.

On hearing Mr Coughlan’s outline of the draft national waste management plan for a circular economy, the SPC chairman, Cllr Tom Farrell, said 40% of the three million tons of waste produced is recycled, and wondered where the rest goes.

He urged the public to make submissions on the draft plan (the consultation is open till July).

Cllr Paddy Hill complained about the amount of rubbish left behind by those coming out of various premises at night. Both he and Cllr Johnnie Penrose stressed the need to educate people to be careful about where they dispose of waste. Cllr Penrose said that anything that can be done to reduce waste is to be welcomed.

Details of the draft plan and how to make submissions are available at mywaste.ie.