Sir, – Richard Boyd Barrett (March 14th) is unnecessarily outraged and indignant when he says that householders recycle some of their refuse and are then charged for doing so.
Householders don’t recycle their refuse. They simply separate their recyclable rubbish from their non-recyclable rubbish. Someone else provides the service of delivering the recyclable rubbish to the recycling plant and then recycling it. Clearly this service costs money and there is nothing unusual or outrageous about having to pay for it.
If payment for recycling is unacceptable to Mr Boyd Barrett then he should accept that the generation of vast amounts of rubbish by the people he represents is equally unacceptable. He should first direct his outrage at his own constituents. – Yours, etc,
MARY MORRISSEY,
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Castletownbere,
Co Cork.
Sir, – In which colour bin should I recycle my green bin? – Yours, etc,
JUDITH GOLDBERGER,
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.
Sir, – I heard on the radio this morning that the Chinese are no longer willing to recycle our recyclable waste and now we may have to pay additionally for that. I also heard that if there are any food remains in a single green bin then the entire lorry-load is discarded. If this is correct then the green bin is a waste of time.
I was born in south Dublin in 1966 and we had one bin about half the size of the current black bin and it was collected every week by the council.
The greengrocer called into the house every Thursday and delivered eggs and vegetables for the week. The breadman came and delivered the bread every day. The milkman came and delivered bottles of milk every day and took away the empty ones. There was no packaging.
At some point in time, all of these services were sent into oblivion because big companies could sell poorer quality produce cheaper. The people “running” these companies never did and never will understand anything other than “profits”.
The cost to the consumer today is that we will have to pay on the treble or the quadruple for succumbing to what appeared at the time to be a “sweet deal”.
I encourage consumers to seek out suppliers who produce and sell directly so that we might encourage a return to the ways of the 1960s and 1970s. – Yours, etc,
CIARÁN SUDWAY,
Dublin 2.
Sir, – I’ve been refused a pay rise for each of the past eight years due to an “inability to pay clause” in my contract. In the meantime, I’ve seen the introduction of the property tax and soaring health insurance premiums. And now we can add sky-rocketing waste charges. An economic recovery? Let me know when it starts. – Yours, etc,
MARY BYRNE,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.