Pay-by-use waste system

Madam, - It was depressing indeed to read your report on the announcement by the Minister for the Environment that he intends…

Madam, - It was depressing indeed to read your report on the announcement by the Minister for the Environment that he intends to introduce pay-by-use charges for refuse collection without adequate operator guidelines, price controls or the support of a waiver scheme.

If the Minister has the health and well-being of both the people and their environment in mind, his objective must be to collect as much refuse as possible for recycling and/or safe disposal. To introduce the scheme in the way that he has announced is, to say the least, grossly irresponsible.

It is well known that this system drives up the unit cost and without proper controls and supports, thousands of people will find that they cannot afford to access the system as often as necessary and indeed many will not be able to access the system at all.

It is not as if the Minister has not been alerted to this. The problems associated with the proposed system are well documented and in correspondence with him and his Department the experience of our area, which has suffered this system for over a year now, were fully outlined and explained.

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One must now question what exactly does this Minister see as his brief. Is the "low-tax" economy policy of this Government to be shored up regardless? - Yours, etc.,

JIM O'SULLIVAN,

Rathedmond,

Sligo.

Madam - Regarding the latest idea being bandied about concerning a pay-by-weight regime on refuse collections - in essence, a splendid idea - will one now be obliged to affix a padlock to one's wheelie-bin, in order to prevent one's nefarious neighbour from disposing of his used car battery therein? - Yours, etc.,

D. K. HENDERSON, Castle Avenue, Dublin 3.