Cleaning up in the bin stakes

Bin-upmanship is a new phenomenon in Ireland, writes Edel Morgan

There was a scene in the last series of Desperate Housewives where Lynette pulled a dozen empty wine bottles out of Bree's bin and lined them outside her door with a note asking her if she had a drink problem?

The pathos of the scene, which marked Bree's descent into alcoholism, was totally lost on me because all I could think about was a)does that meant prim and proper Bree doesn't recycle? and b) do 12 empty wine bottles in your rubbish automatically signify a drink problem?

This being Recycling Week, my first concern is probably the most pertinent to this column - although the second will resonate with anyone who has been cornered by a neighbour at a bottle bank as they were about to dispose of an embarrassing accumulation of wine bottles.

Perhaps my incredulity at Bree's failure to recycle stems from my being part of a growing culture of bin-upmanship. To compete seriously in the bin-upmanship stakes it's imperative to reduce the number of bins you put out for collection to one a month at most. All the better if you never put out a bin, but this requires serious commitment.

I know a couple who bring their paint tins to a recycling centre in Skerries, their batteries, plastics, glass, engine oil, cooking oil and cardboard containers to a centre at Collins Avenue, Dublin 9, and their garden cuttings to either Coolock or Tolka Valley in Dublin 11 .

When I asked them how they get rid of their cooked meat waste, they admitted to surreptitiously dumping it in their daughter's bin on visits. Their illicit dumping is mild in comparison to that of the elusive late-night brigade who wander the streets after midnight, squashing their rubbish into their neighbour's bins or into public bins to avoid charges.

One lady I heard of doesn't accumulate much paper waste because she goes armed with a knife to the supermarket and cuts off packaging at the checkout. Rhubarb and broccoli ends and the tops of pineapples are also lopped off and left for the store to dispose of.

It can be easy to feel a certain moral superiority over those who don't recycle - according to Repak only 10 per cent "claim" not to recycle, which is down 20 per cent on 2003 - but the reality is that a lot of people have only been recycling in earnest since pay-by-weight or pay-by-use charges were introduced, although only 14 local authorities have so far implemented the system.

Last year, according to Repak, the amount of used packaging recycled from the domestic sector increased by 59 per cent. Bring-bank tonnages increased by 31 per cent and green bin tonnages were up by 140 per cent. Apparently the best recyclers are ABC1 families with kids aged under five and the worst are 15 to 24-year-old males - probably because they live at home and don't lift a finger. Women are better at it than men, particularly those aged 25 to 34 with kids. Which makes one wonder what happens when they reach the age of 35? Do they suddenly lose the will to recycle ?

According to Darrell Crowe of Repak, apartment dwellers lag well behind house dwellers, particularly in blocks where there's a high percentage of tenants. As the service charge, which usually covers bin collection, is paid by the landlord it reduces the incentive to recycle.

"Up to six years ago when older developments were being built, the planner and developers were not considering segregated bins," says Crowe, who says the capacity is often not there for the number of bins required. "A segregated recycling system can require up to five bins which may need to be collected every two days, which has an implication for costs."

Another problem can be that the bin stores in older apartment developments aren't designed to be accessed by collection lorries.

Crowe says that planners in some local authorities are now more aware of the need to make provision for recycling facilities and are more vigilant about installing bring banks in large new schemes, such as Adamstown.

"Everybody wants a bring bank nearby in theory but nobody wants them right on their doorstep. The key is to install them from the outset of a development."

With developers building large high-density apartment complexes, the need to deal with waste and refuse efficiently has become more pressing. For complexes in the suburbs with some ground area, underground bring banks are being touted as the way forward because they are less intrusive and have a better capacity, thus reducing collection costs.

Old-style terraced housing has also posed challenges to the recycling drive because residents are often reluctant to drag a procession of bins through their house. Dublin City Council offers a bag service for dry recyclables which goes some way towards offering a solution.

For those tired of tripping over myriad bins in the kitchen or who feel compelled to hide their bottle bin from visiting parents, Repak suggests installing an in-built system, often under the sink, for general, recyclable and compostable waste. Apparently this is automatically done at the building stage in parts of Scandinavia. For the more ambitious, a mini-recycling centre in the utility or garage is another option.