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Heated exchanges over waste proposals

Monday, 24 March 2008

THERE were heated exchanges at Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council’s monthly meeting last week as councillors discussed changes to the waste management plan which will affect the four local authorities in the Dublin area.
The councils have changed the rules governing waste management so that now only the local authorities themselves and companies selected through tenders for certain areas can collect bins.
The councils say the changes are needed to prevent bin collection chaos, with several different bin lorries collecting waste from the same streets on different days.
Private waste collectors are now operating in areas all across the city, often providing a service which costs less than the council collection.
However, Dublin City Council, on behalf of the four Dublin local authorities, will now review the waste permits for companies such as Greenstar, Panda and the City Bin Company who collect household waste in the Dublin region.
Announcing the move, Dublin City Assistant Manager, Matt Twomey, said the recent entry of private operators to a section of the Dublin household waste market and the fact that several companies were collecting waste in certain areas was “unsustainable”.

In addition he said that the council provided a social element to their waste management services such as the provision of 70,000 waivers, waste awareness programmes and the employment of enforcement teams to catch those who illegally dumped waste.
He said private waste firms did not provide any of these services.
“The sustainability and environmental costs for multiple service providers operating on the same collection routes is not sustainable on traffic congestion, noise, air quality, greenhouse gas emissions or economic grounds,” said Mr Twomey.
However, private waste operators like Greenstar, which operates in all four local authority areas, maintain that the councils have varied the waste plan because of losses they have sustained as a result of their own waste services and believe the move will mean increased costs for householders.
In a statement last week, Greenstar announced its intention to continue to operate its household waste service as normal, despite the city council’s variation of the plan.
The company said it would “be challenging the decision to re-write the waste rules”.
Meanwhile, there were heated exchanges at Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council’s monthly meeting as councillors discussed the variation last week.
Last year, the county council lost a massive e7 million through the operation of its waste services.
Criticising the decision to vary the plan, Cllr John Bailey (FG) said there had been little consultation with councillors about the decision.
“We are giving up collecting the waste and we are giving it over to private tender,” he said. “What’s going to happen to the people who are on waivers here?
“What is going to happen to the odd e600,000 that we have lost in January, February and March this year? Where is the accountability? We have had no discussion, no policy decision and nobody has said anything about the e7 million that we lost last year.”
However, Cllr Tom Kivlehan (GP) accused Cllr Bailey, who was head of the council’s environment committee, of failing to understand the issue.
Cllr Bailey repeatedly asked Cllr Kivlehan to withdraw the remarks and demanded an apology from him.
Cllr Kivlehan refused, sparking a furious response from the Fine Gael representative who demanded that Cllr Kivlehan be suspended from the chamber.
Cathaoirleach Cllr Denis O’Callaghan then ordered an adjournment to the proceedings. After the recess the Green Party councillor eventually withdrew the remarks.

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