The imminent demise of Kerbside, the household waste recycling collection service in Dublin, indicates recycling business in the Republic is being left to operate in a precarious position, according to Green Party TD Mr John Gormley.
He has called on the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, to intervene and ensure Dublin households can avail of a reliable waste recycling service, given their willingness to support recycling. People would be appalled to hear almost 40 per cent of waste sent to Kerbside had ended up in landfills, he said.
Kerbside, set up by Dublin's four local authorities on a pilot basis and operated in restricted parts of the city at a cost of £1.6 million a year, is to be replaced by a consortium which will operate on a city-wide basis.
The company, which employs 66 people and is based in Tallaght, has cited a fall-off in the market for some recyclables, notably paper and plastics, and high costs contributing to its difficulties. There has also been a sharp increase in complaints about the service; notably a lack of regular pick-up of recyclables. One caller to The Irish Times said his recyclable waste was collected only twice since Christmas. In one area, householders complained only certain types of waste were taken from their green boxes.
Kerbside had never been properly resourced, Mr Gormley said, while the poor service at present placed a major question mark over the Dublin Region Waste Management Plan which had such ambitious recycling targets.
Acting assistant city manager Mr Matt Twomey accepted the Kerbside service of late had been in a poor state and led to "an awful lot of complaints". Figures indicating 37 per cent of material collected by Kerbside was ending up in landfill were "broadly correct" but all recycling schemes involved a certain amount of landfill because of poor waste segregation - typical rates in Britain were about 15 per cent.
Local authorities were in final stages of talks with a new contractor with the hope that details would be finalised "within a couple of weeks", he said.
A Department of the Environment spokesman said Kerbside was a local authority operation primarily, but Mr Dempsey wished to see recycling and reuse of household waste at a high level. With this in mind, some £500,000 had been allocated to Kerbside. A new system tied into the regional waste management process, it was hoped, would be more successful. With more recyclable material, there was a better chance of finding a market, he said.
