New bin charges

Nevyn

Here we go...

20/11/07 Full kerbside waste and recycling collection to be rolled out in Fingal


Fingal County Council has confirmed it is extending its brown bin service countywide so that householders can recycle up to two thirds of their household waste through their green and brown bin services. This rollout of the full household recycling service is to be substantially completed in Fingal during 2008. The green bin service will also be expanded.

P.J. Howell, Director of Environment with Fingal County Council, confirmed today that building on the success of the brown bin pilot project, plans are well advanced to extend the brown bin service to every house in Fingal and to double the frequency of the green bin collection to twice per month, including allowing plastic bottles in the packaging to be accepted in the green bin.

“Rolling out the full recycling service will have implications for how Fingal County Council recovers its costs for operating the household waste management service”, P.J. outlines, “and we undertake to make any changes in our charges as fair and user friendly as possible.”

“From 2008 we must introduce a fixed charge of €110 per year on a phased basis, once a household has been provided with the full range of kerbside recycling services i.e. the green and brown recycle bins and the black bin for non-recyclable waste,” the Director explains. “We must operate a refuse and recycling service that pays for itself and at the moment it is heavily subsidised”, P.J. says.

In 2007 Fingal County Council spent €20.1m collecting and managing household waste, €10.4 million of this on recycling services alone. €11.1m of this cost was contributed by the householder through bin tags. A further €2.1m was recovered from the sale of the dry recyclable material and from Government grants, a figure not as high as is commonly thought. The remaining €6.9m shortfall arising from the cost of the service was subsidised by Fingal County Council. In 2008 costs will increase further for an expanded waste management service. The cost of the green and brown bins together will increase from €7.3m to €11m.

“For this new flat charge, each household will get a sticker for each of their three bins, but will only need to use a bin tag on their black refuse bin when they put this out for collection,” P.J. says. “There won’t be any increase in the charge for a bin tag next year”, he points out, “and people who qualify for waivers will not be affected.”

“We are still giving the maximum control of waste costs to each household”, P.J. says. “Every house will have 2 brown and 2 green bin collections every month, so we expect black bins to be presented only every 3 weeks”, he continues. “This equates to a cost of less than €5 per household per week for the full range of kerbside waste management services”, he explains. “Even if a black bin is put out and tagged every second week, the cost per week for the full service is still only a little over €6”, the Director says. “We are also continuing with our very generous waiver scheme” he adds.

“Two thirds of household waste will be recycled once the full service is rolled out across Fingal,” the Director says. “Fingal residents have always embraced the recycling challenge and last year they recycled 24,000 tonnes or 25% of household waste, a 120% improvement on recycling over a 3 year period and this figure will be even higher in 2007”, he added. “With the roll out of the full recycling service which we committed to in the Waste Management Plan for Dublin, we will achieve best practice in Ireland and Europe”, he adds. “Our householders have a lot to be proud of,” P.J. says, “and I expect that they will adapt to our new system and continue to manage their waste in a responsible and cost effective way”.

Full details of the roll out of the full household recycling service and the introduction of the flat charge will be circulated to every home in the county in the coming months.

For further information please contact:


Florence White, Communications Officer, Fingal County Council
Tel: 01 890 5998 M: 087 4141580 Email: florence.white@fingalcoco.ie

ciaran76

I thought they were going to charge people by what they threw out. Now its a flat fee and a bin tag.

I think I can count myself lucky for a change that I live in an estate were the
management company are not ripping us off for our bins.

Zaph

Sounds like they've been talking to their buddies in DLRCC about the most efficient way of screwing their residents. €110 a year flat fee is pretty steep. I live alone and a second green bin collection a month isn't going to make any appreciable difference to me. Neither is a brown bin collection twice a month, except maybe during the few months in the summer when the grass needs to be cut fairly regularly. As for the black bin, I get away with once every 3-4 weeks as it is, but now I'm being charged extra for that too. Shower of bastids.

Bring back Joe Higgins!

Pat Dunne

I would completely dissagree with this up front flat fee. It will just add another bill to the even tightening budget in our house.

I appreicate that we have to pay for things, but why can't we do it on demand when we actually need the service and not this way.

Fingal Co. Co. have really put the big boots on this time to kick the ordinary person where it hurts most.

Have the officials in Fingal lost the run of themselves completely or perhaps they cannot see what is going on to the ordinary man and woman who are seeing weekly increases in the price of ordinary everyday items.But there again they are completely faceless, totally unaccountable and finally, unelected!

m_stan

By abondoning the 'pay for what you dump' method, Fingal Co Co are in fact incentivising people to dump more in two ways 1). By not paying the annual flat fee and 2) if you do pay it, it'll mean you can leave out a full bin every week.

Added to this, a second green bin collection wont make any difference to amount of waste the vast majority are dumping.

Also, in my personal case I don't need a brown bin as I compost all my organic waste. So for me, and any other Fingal resident that does their duty, this is a slap in the face. In the long run its bad for the environment as more people will dump more.

As was the case with the bin tags, watch this space - the price will increase at at least twice inflation every year.

Bad move all round.

PauloMN

m_stan wrote: »

By abondoning the 'pay for what you dump' method, Fingal Co Co are in fact incentivising people to dump more in two ways 1). By not paying the annual flat fee and 2) if you do pay it, it'll mean you can leave out a full bin every week.

I don't believe that's the case. The bin tag will still be there in addition to the flat fee, so if you put out a full black bin every week, you'll still have to tag it with an €8 bin tag. There's no less of an incentive to recycle as your black bin will still cost the exact same to put out.

Fingal's attitude is that by providing a brown bin and more green bin collections, less waste should end up in the black bin. If you put out your back bin say every 3 weeks under the new system rather than every 2 weeks currently, you are already saving €72 on tags.

I'm all for the twice monthly green bin collection, especially if they take plastics. Our green bin is jammers come collection time, and I've missed it once or twice, which means another month to wait with a full bin. I'm also definitely all for the brown bin, especially in the summer as I currently put a huge amount of grass in the black bin.

Yes it's another bill, and nobody likes bills - I'm no different to anyone in that regard, but I'm willing to pay towards proper waste management. I'm sure we all remember when we were young that you'd stick bags and bags of everything and anything out for the bin men - and it would all just end up in a big landfill. Does anyone really want to go back to that?

m_stan

you're right. I read it wrong. I though the new charge was replacing the tags.

However, I'm still none to happy about it. Its yet another tax. Whats the point in the government reducing PAYE taxes when it just gets lumped on you indirectly. I'd love to see the cost of refuse collection in Fingal on a chart against the cost of inflation. I'm lucky - I can afford it. Many people cannot.

PauloMN

I hear you Mark, and I agree that PAYE reductions are pointless when all these other charges mount up, like bin charges, road tax, television license and the fact that people have to take out private health cover etc.. I guarantee we'll be paying for our water soon as well.

My sister lives in Germany, where she typically has higher tax rates to pay. But the public services are streets ahead of ours in terms of infrastructure, health services and education. Absolutely streets ahead. She definitely gets more value for money over there for her taxes than we do over here.

That's what gets me about Ireland - the lack of value for money. I don't mind paying taxes - we all have to to keep a country running - but the value for money is really poor.

Gaspode

I am still waiting for a green bin despite countless calls to Oxigen and the council! That's about 5 years of a wait. Heavens knows when a brown bin might show up!!

Since they closed the recycling centre in Coolmine I've given up on recylcling. I work too long and hard to waste my saturday morning trying to find that Damastown place. (It seems a bit mad to have to burn so much petrol getting to a recycling centre doesnt it?)

Feck them anyway, they're making fly tipping seem like a viable solution........

bkeane

deswalsh wrote: »

I am still waiting for a green bin despite countless calls to Oxigen and the council! That's about 5 years of a wait. Heavens knows when a brown bin might show up!!

Since they closed the recycling centre in Coolmine I've given up on recylcling. I work too long and hard to waste my saturday morning trying to find that Damastown place. (It seems a bit mad to have to burn so much petrol getting to a recycling centre doesnt it?)

Feck them anyway, they're making fly tipping seem like a viable solution........

Heard that Coolmine will be re-opened before Christmas - hopefully

Nevyn

Well Fingal CC did have plans to put bottle banks at the entrance to a lot of the estates but the seem to have fallen through.

Gaspode

bkeane wrote: »

Heard that Coolmine will be re-opened before Christmas - hopefully

Jeez, how long does it take to refurbish a bloody recycling centre? Are they putting in central heating, double galzing, carpets and a deck or something!!
Hate to have those sods building my house.

Nevyn

deswalsh wrote: »

Jeez, how long does it take to refurbish a bloody recycling centre? Are they putting in central heating, double galzing, carpets and a deck or something!!
Hate to have those sods building my house.

There are 3 buildings in it which can be seen by a passing double decker bus.
There was no proper office for the staff there so they could well be putting in double glazing, carpets ect..