Dublin householders who have failed to pay their domestic waste charges will not have their wheelie bins emptied on certain routes from Monday.
Dublin City Council is introducing the new policy on a few routes.
It is believed that certain roads in Rathmines and Grangegorman will be the first affected. More routes will be added later.
Bins that are not being collected because householders are in arrears will have an orange label attached to the handle. This will give a contact telephone number which the owner can ring to find out how the refuse collection service can be restored.
A spokesman for Dublin City Council explained yesterday: "The vast majority of households and customers are paying charges so it is unfair to allow the small minority to get away with not paying and yet receiving the same service."
He said that 95 per cent of people were paying their charges.
He also said that the council would make reasonable arrangements with people in arrears, such as allowing them to pay in instalments.
There was also a generous waiver system for certain people, he said.
The scheme applied, for example, to pensioners and social welfare recipients.
Some people may also find that their bins are not being emptied because the bin has not been registered.
If the bin cannot be brought to a waste management services depot, an inspector can call to a home to register it. A charge of €25 is made for this service.
Since 2004 Dublin City Council has been progressively refusing to collect certain waste where payments are not made.
In 2004 the council refused to collect waste from commercial premises in arrears.
Last year this was extended to untagged bags and communal bins where the charges were not paid.
On January 1st, 2005, Dublin City Council introduced a pay-by-use/volume system for household waste collection services.
It was designed to benefit the environment by encouraging households to reduce and recycle waste materials and present their bins or bags for collection only when they are full.
The wheelie bins are not weighed. Charges are based on the number of times the bin is collected. There is also a standing charge for domestic waste collections to cover the fixed costs for the service.