Non Collection of Bins attempted in Dunlaoghaire Rathdown

dublin | bin tax / household tax / water tax | news report Tuesday July 18, 2006 19:48 by Terence

Campaign out to ensure bins collected.

Last Tuesday 11th July, DLR council atemtpted non-collection of bins in a limited area in the Broadford housing estate in Ballinteer leaving behind the bins of those who haven't paid the Bin Tax yet.

Lisa Maher (SP) of The Campaign Against Service Charges for that area received a number of calls from residents and as a result a meeting was called for last Monday night (17th) in Taylors Pub at 8pm at which about 15 people showed up.

It was decided at the meeting to meet the bin truck today and ensure that collection proceeded okay. And this morning a number of people showed up from 6am onwards in support and followed the bin lorry with the campaign banner around the estate to ensure no bins were left behind.

It is likely that DLR council will send out a supervisor next Tuesday week and another meeting is called for next Monday 24th at 8pm in Taylors Pub (Ticknock) to decide on what to do and we would be looking for a turnout of support next Tuesday morning.


Residents should be aware that it is legal for you to throw your own rubbish bags into the bin lorry whenever it stops and residents in a number areas like Ringsend and Ballybrack are already doing this regularly.


DLR have introduced a complicated bin tax scheme where there is a flat fee charge of approximately 85 euro per year, followed by a charge per bin lift, followed by a charge for weight. They can easily modify any of these charges and so quite easily raise the total cost of the service.

People who formerly had waivers are now been charged the flat fee. It is believed that waste volumes are down 25%, so the council is 'losing' money and will more than likely raise the flat fee.

The council are trying to register some of the bins and claim the truck will not lift it if not registered. This is simply not true. It has also come to light that the weighing mechanism only works on one of the trucks and not all the time. One resident weighed his waste and it was 9 kg, but the council rounded this up to 12 kg. There are widespread reports of gross inaccuracies.

A fairly large number of people have opted out of the service althogether. This can be done by writing a letter to the council and asking them to take away your bin. However you are then legally obliged to give receipts of all your visits to the dump to prove that you are disposing of your waste properly.

A number of bin workers have been laid off and a number of redundancies are pending. It seems that DLR council are getting rid of the older workers particularly those who would have memories of various strikes and struggles from earlier years and also would have secured better working conditions and things like pensions. This looks like a way by DLR council to break the memories and experience of solidarity of past struggles and save on wages and reduce the potential for strikes later.

There is still a large level of non-payment of up to 50%. This figure would include partial payers, whilst the council counts partial payers and those on waivers as paid. In Fingal bin tags are more expensive in areas where there are Green Bins. This indirectly tells us that they are charging for the recycling service and that eventually they will introduce charges for recycling. The efforts at creating a recycling infrastucture are merely tokenistic. It is well documented and plans are well advanced for a very large incinerator in Dublin in Ringsend. This will have a capacity for 800,000 tonnes of waste and since only burnables like, paper, cardboard, plastic and wood can go in it, these would suggest why the level of recycling, especially of plastic is so poor and once they introduce full charges for recycling, recycling levels will collapse and the incinerator will be presentated at that moment as the solution to the problem.

The net effort will be down turn in recycling and waste volumes will start to increase again and the waste industry will be able to make money off us during collection, then collect money from the government for running the incinerator, then again to dispose of the toxic ash and of course our health will suffer too. But it keeps the packaging, retail and waste industries happy. The angle for retail is that they get to sell you product that consist largely of packaging rather than the product itself. Consider a pre-packed tray of tomatoes will cost more to unit per tomatoe than if you bought them loosely. Since they come in packs of 4, and yet you may only need 2, then the other 2 go to waste. Same for the little packs of orange juice. Lots of single drink throwaway packs. Total volume of juice will be a lot less than the amount you would get in a large container for the same price. And so on.

The obvious thing of reduction of waste is not on the agenda. Glass bottles with a return-deposit system should be introduced and plastic bottles phased out, since only a tiny percentage are recycled anyhow. There should also be a levy like the plastic bag level introduced on excessive packaging. This alone would significantly reduce the amount of waste.

And lastly the council should simply give everyone Compost Bins, which can reduce waste volumes by up to 25%. These are available from the council at a discount, but can be found in virtually any hardware store and it is something everyone should start doing if they haven't done so already.

If we could all significantly reduce our waste levels further by recycling more intensively and composting, we could signficantly lower the value of the 'market' which the council and government is so eager to hand over to the private market. But since they control the recycling -but not the composting -hence they give it little publicity -then by virtue of that control they can sabotage our efforts by introducing green charges latter.

Lastly, people should never burn their rubbish especially plastic because it gives off toxic fumes.

Therefore this double taxation should be resisted.

Other recent Bin Tax articles can be found at:
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/77222
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/74471
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/74457

Ringsend Incinerator
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/76866
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/75480


Fast track law passed to allow incinerators to be built.
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/77050