Dublin City Council has been accused of penalising green householders for attempting to minimise the amount of waste they put in their 'wheelie' bins.
The Green Party said the council's charges at recycling centres and a new €40 charge for householders who wish to swap their large, standard size bin for a smaller bin, "flies in the face of the polluter pays principle and should be abolished immediately".
The council introduced a new pay-by-use system for its bins on January 1st.
Green councillor Ms Bronwen Maher Dublin City Council said the standard bins (240 litres) have a standing charge of €80 per year and €5 per collection while householders with a small black bin (140 litres) are charged €65 per year standing charge and €3 for each collection.
"However householders who manage to recycle and reduce their waste output by replacing their standard bin with the smaller black bin are now being charged for their sound environmental behaviour.
"This really is outrageous considering the Government's promise last year that those who recycle more would pay less. The promise of lower waste charges for good environmental behaviour has been broken," Ms Maher said.
She said any charge which penalises householders for reducing and recycling is "seriously counter productive".
"The Green Party supports waste charges but only for those who are not recycling or reducing the amount of waste they produce.
"However Dublin City Council's practice of charging householders at bring centres together with this new charge to change to a smaller bin does not fit in with the polluter pays principle and should to be stopped immediately."
A spokeswoman for Dublin City Council said, however, that customers would only be charged the €40 for a replacement bin and that if they were first time users seeking a small wheelie bin they would not have to pay this charge.
She said the first wheelie bin given to householders was subsidised, but that this supplement could be given only once.
Even if a customer returns a larger bin to the council, the bins cannot be reused as they are security tagged, she said.
The council also expected that if customers kept the larger bin they would put it out less often, thus making savings on their waste charges in any case.
The authority estimates that if customers put their large wheelie bin out each week, it will cost €340 a year. However, if they use a small bin, the council estimates a total cost of €.221. These charges are further reduced if the bin is not left out for collection every week.
Dublin City Council said it is also making composters available to householders who request them, which should further minimise the waste being thrown in the wheelie bins.