Most householders could face bigger bills, now that pay-by-use refuse collection has kicked in, writes Tim O'Brien
As you wheeled your bin outside the front gate for collection this week, were you aware of what the new pay-by-use collection system means for your pocket?
The new system, announced by former minister for the environment Martin Cullen last February, dangled the tantalising prospect of lower waste charges in return for good environmental behaviour.
"Those who recycle more will pay less, those who don't will pay more," the minister said, and a comparison was made with the hugely successful plastic bag tax.
But as the new system kicks in almost a year later, a very confused picture has emerged, with few householders, if any, facing the prospect of being able to "pay less".
For example, Dublin City Council, which has introduced one of the most straightforward systems, charged a flat fee of €195 for a standard 240-litre wheelie bin last year. In 2005 it intends to charge a flat fee of €80 with a €5 collection charge. If householders put the bin out just once every second week the annual total will be €210, an increase of just €15 per year. But this is dependent on the household halving the number of times it puts the bin out. An immediate zero to 50 per cent change in behaviour is required, and even then the annual cost to householders will be greater.
In Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, the standing charge for 2005 is €80, with a €4 collection charge and a 20 cent per kilo waste fee. At €4, the collection element is cheaper than Dublin City Council's €5 charge, but those who attempt to save money by putting the bin out only once every two weeks are caught by the per-kilo cost.
While householders in Dublin might console themselves that "pay less" actually means "pay less than you might have done", householders around the State face less certain outcomes. In Wicklow, for instance, the private contractor Greenstar, which is introducing a pay-by-weight system, has written to its customers setting a flat fee of €392 plus a per-kilo charge. The per-kilo charge is to be calculated mid-year and balancing bills or refunds will be issued at the year's end.
At first glance, pay-by-weight would appear to be the fairest application of the "polluter pays" principle. But as was discovered in the Netherlands several years ago, if everyone dramatically reduces their waste, and hence their waste bills, there will not be enough money generated to make the business self-sufficient or - in the case of the growing private sector - profitable.
Cork County Council, which has pioneered a pay-by-weight system, has set a basic charge of €120 to cover the cost of the service and a further charge of 46 cent per kilo to cover the cost of disposal. But not all local authorities' efforts have been so successful. Galway City Council has failed to meet the deadline and is still operating a flat fee, with plans to introduce pay-by-use on a pilot basis in Knocknacarra later this year.
Across the State, various local authorities have taken the instruction with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Mayo County Council, for example, has taken the view that because it operates a two-bin system (big and small) it is compliant with the pay-by-use system. That view is prevalent in the private sector and among smaller town councils still involved in waste collection.
A problem besetting private waste operators and small town councils is that the local tip heads are generally owned by the county or city councils, which set the rate for disposal. These rates are generally not set until the end-of-year estimates meeting, and many authorities have yet to meet. The knock-on effect is that the smaller authorities (such as Castlebar, Westport and Ballina) and private operators (such as Tony Sharkey in Donegal and AES, which operates widely in the midlands) do not know what their costs for the current year will be. They must await these charges before calculating their fees for 2005.
Whether or not Martin Cullen envisaged these difficulties when he announced the January 1st deadline, nothing was said at the time about introducing charges for recycling.
Cullen said the new system would be more equitable, "because people know they are charged only for what they throw out". He added: "It is important that we introduce mechanisms which reward those who recycle their waste and encourage others to join the recycling drive."
That reward is now being eroded by the creeping introduction of charges for "green bin" recycling in a wide range of counties, including Kerry, Kilkenny, Leitrim (where a private operator charges €9 per lift of a waste bin and €6 per lift of a recycling bin), Louth, Meath, Roscommon, Sligo, South Tipperary and Waterford.
Arguably the simplest form of charge is the tag system, where pre-paid tags are attached to bins which are then picked up by waste collectors.
South Dublin County Council has standard €6 and €3 tags, depending on the size of the bin. Although the cost of the green bin collection is built into the charges, householders know if they use the green recycling bins, they will reduce the accumulative cost of their tagged bins. "When we find a better system we will introduce it," says Gary Keogh of the council's environmental section.
The Consumers' Association of Ireland is critical of the lack of an over-riding, transparent system. The association's chief executive, Dermot Jewell, says a "lack of certainty and consistency comes across as an unprofessional system. There is no point in putting a system in place unless it is streamlined. It is being sold on the idea that it is a better system which clearly it is not. It only provides another nail on which those who don't support the principle can hang their hat."
Perhaps the current Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, should look at standardising the service.