Recycling bins at home - why the cost?

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RMCF

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In this world where everybody seems to be 'environmentally friendly', I have recently taken receipt of my recycling bin for paper, plastics etc.

But the thing that bugs me is why does it cost €11 to get it emptied, the same as the landfill bin?

Is this anyway to encourage us to recycle? The operator is making exactly the same money from these bins as the black ones - surely they should be subsidised?

I have spoke to someone I know who lives in Dublin who says that their recycling bin is emptied for free. So why €11 in the NW?
 
In Fingal you pay €8 per lift of your waste bin and the green bin is emptied once a month for free. The council has now decided to introduce a €110 annual charge on top of the per lift charge.

When a relative complained about this large hike in price they were told that people were recycling too much and they were not making enough from the per lift charge anymore!
 
In the south east we pay an annual bin charge of circa 100, it's 7.50 for the standard bin, and 2.50 for the green (recycling) or brown (compost) bin that is supplied by the council.

I find this fair enough, but if as you say, it's as expensive to get your green bin lifted, are there any recycling centres nearby you can use for free? I also use the local bottle and can banks, and there's a centre which will accept plastic and cardboard too.

Is yours a private operator or a council operated scheme? I'd say this has a huge bearing on how much they charge you, unfortunately.
 
snuffle said:
In the south east we pay an annual bin charge of circa 100, it's 7.50 for the standard bin, and 2.50 for the green (recycling) or brown (compost) bin that is supplied by the council.

I find this fair enough, but if as you say, it's as expensive to get your green bin lifted, are there any recycling centres nearby you can use for free? I also use the local bottle and can banks, and there's a centre which will accept plastic and cardboard too.

Is yours a private operator or a council operated scheme? I'd say this has a huge bearing on how much they charge you, unfortunately.
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There are bottle banks and can recycling facilities quite close that I can take some of my waste to, but for papers, plastic, cardboard, cartons, tins etc there isn't.

It is a private operator who lifts our rubbish and recycling, but I just think its sad that the two lifts are the same price. Only in Ireland could I see this happening.

I bet there are loads of countries that lift your recycleables for nothing - are they not meant to be encouraging us to recycle? If so, they should be subsidising the price of lifts.
 
AFAIK we only pay for our landfill bill, the recycle bin, once a month is free. This is from a private contractor in Monaghan.
 
We can bring ours to a recycling centre for free! Is there(civic Amenity) any of them near you?
 
footsteps said:
We can bring ours to a recycling centre for free! Is there(civic Amenity) any of them near you?
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As I mentioned I only have a collection point for glass bottles and cans nearby. This leaves an awful lot of recycleable waste that has to be paid to be collected.

There are full recycling facilities nearby in the North, but as you can imagine they aren't too fond of seeing RoI reg cars leaving off rubbish with them !!

I have emailed Donegal County Council to ask them for a reply on why recycling lifts cost the same as the landfill - I will keep you updated with their response.
 
RMCF said:
... are they not meant to be encouraging us to recycle? If so, they should be subsidising the price of lifts...
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we should be encouraged to reduce before recycle. Recycling is not the answer to all our problems.

I imagine also that a cheaper recycling lift might lead to unscrupulous individuals mixing their refuse... perhaps those in the SE are more honest than the rest of us :)
 
gianni said:
we should be encouraged to reduce before recycle. Recycling is not the answer to all our problems.

I imagine also that a cheaper recycling lift might lead to unscrupulous individuals mixing their refuse... perhaps those in the SE are more honest than the rest of us :)
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Some unscrupulous people may try to mix their recycling to avail of the cheaper lifts, but the council operate random spot checks, ranging from quick cursory glances into the wheelie bin by a councilperson sent round a few minutes in advance of the lifts, who'll have a quick rifle down past the top layer of cardboard/paper/plastics, to somtimes randomly removing entire wheelie bins for emptying and fully checking before returning the bins to the household, so there is an incentive there to be honest as there's hefty fines if you're caught sticking any old rubbish in and "contaminating" the entire lorryload of recyclables.

It might take up some extra time and manpower to do these random spotchecks, but it seems to have the desired effect as there doesn't seem to be much of a problem with mixing of refuse in the SE thankfully.

I have to say I am pretty happy with the system they brought in, even though there was initial uproar about the brown compost bins during summertime (flies/maggots/noxious smells issues :)).

RMCF, have you sent that e-mail aready?Would you consider including a request for the provision of a bring centre for recyclables? Just to see what their response is regarding not providing these facilities, or if they have it under consideration already?
 
snuffle said:
Some unscrupulous people may try to mix their recycling to avail of the cheaper lifts, but the council operate random spot checks, ranging from quick cursory glances into the wheelie bin by a councilperson sent round a few minutes in advance of the lifts, who'll have a quick rifle down past the top layer of cardboard/paper/plastics, to somtimes randomly removing entire wheelie bins for emptying and fully checking before returning the bins to the household, so there is an incentive there to be honest as there's hefty fines if you're caught sticking any old rubbish in and "contaminating" the entire lorryload of recyclables.

It might take up some extra time and manpower to do these random spotchecks, but it seems to have the desired effect as there doesn't seem to be much of a problem with mixing of refuse in the SE thankfully.

I have to say I am pretty happy with the system they brought in, even though there was initial uproar about the brown compost bins during summertime (flies/maggots/noxious smells issues :)).

RMCF, have you sent that e-mail aready?Would you consider including a request for the provision of a bring centre for recyclables? Just to see what their response is regarding not providing these facilities, or if they have it under consideration already?
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I will wait to see their 1st reply. And then ask them about the likes of plastics, paper, cardboard etc - considering we produce loads of this type of waste - not just glass and drink cans.
 
It's not quite free in Dun Laoghaire - it is built into the annual standing charge.
 
RainyDay said:
It's not quite free in Dun Laoghaire - it is built into the annual standing charge.
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If I use the black bin in Dunlaoghaire Rathdown the green bin is free. However if I opt out of the black bin I have to pay for the green bin. Just back from a short break in France. I noticed old T.V's, chairs, bits of metal. tins of paint and other large items left outside on the street. These were collected by the local council. Why can't we have a service like this?
 
BOXtheFOX said:
If I use the black bin in Dunlaoghaire Rathdown the green bin is free. However if I opt out of the black bin I have to pay for the green bin. Just back from a short break in France. I noticed old T.V's, chairs, bits of metal. tins of paint and other large items left outside on the street. These were collected by the local council. Why can't we have a service like this?
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Some regions in Ireland already do. I haven't had to use it myself, but our local council will collect larger items (furniture, white goods, paint cans etc) for a fee if you call them to arrange it.
 
In county cork we pay 31 euro a calendar month for our refuse collection to a private firm. The recycling bin is collected every second week as is the regular bin. The only incentive to recycle is that the regular bin is only collected fortnightly so would fill up too quick without recycling.
 
fobs said:
In county cork we pay 31 euro a calendar month for our refuse collection to a private firm. The recycling bin is collected every second week as is the regular bin. The only incentive to recycle is that the regular bin is only collected fortnightly so would fill up too quick without recycling.
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And I thought we got it bad in Donegal!!

Our is €11 fortnightly, so €22 per month really. €31 is very expensive.

Btw, still no answer back from Donegal County Council to my email.
 
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