Oxfam Ireland is to introduce a campaign next week to discourage people from using its charity shops as a convenient way of getting rid of rubbish, writes Alison Healy.
Soiled clothes, broken electrical goods and scratched CDs are some of the items donated to Oxfam shops that have to be dumped by the charity.
The Irish Business Against Litter group has already warned that people will dump more rubbish to avoid charges under the new pay-by-weight system of bin charges.
Trevor Anderson, Oxfam Ireland's retail manager, said he did not know if people were using the 43 shops to avoid paying bin charges, but the level of unsaleable goods had increased significantly in the past year as the level of donated goods had increased.
Oxfam Ireland was paying up to €50,000 a year in waste disposal charges to get rid of unsaleable donations. It cost the charity €5 to dispose of one bag of battered textbooks or €10 to scrap a pram with no wheels.
Mr Anderson said most donors provided good quality clothing, homewares and books.
Oxfam shops also have to dispose of ripped books, scratched, broken or pirated records and CDs, damaged household items and broken furniture.
FG policy on defence 'flawed'
The Green Party has rejected a Fine Gael proposal that Ireland join an EU common defence on a case-by-case basis.
Green Party chairman John Gormley said yesterday that Fine Gael's argument, put forward by Gay Mitchell MEP, contained "fundamental flaws".
However, he welcomed Mr Mitchell's directness and contrasted it to the usual "fudge and double-speak we have had to tolerate from establishment political parties in this country".
While Mr Mitchell proposed greater Irish involvement in common EU defence, Mr Gormley said:
"If it's the new threat of global terrorism, then surely investing in new military hardware makes little sense."