COMHAIRLE CHONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF TERENURE-RATHFARNHAM AREA COMMITTEE 2

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

QUESTION No. 21

QUESTION: Councillor E. Walsh

"To ask the Manager to examine the possibility of an improved bin tag to withstand vandals removing them at night time as a lot of residents in Greenhills are not up and about before the bin truck arrives and recently St. Malachys Drive lost the majority of their bintags and will the Manager make a statement on this issue?"

REPLY:

With regard to the waste collection tagging system, the following points may be of interest.  Each Local Authority is now required by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to have in place a pay by weight or pay by volume system of charging for refuse collection.  This Council decided to opt for the volume based system whereby householders are required to tag their bins, which is fairer than the flat charge that applied heretofore. 

 

One of the problems associated with this system is that relating to theft of tags.   The measures which householders can take to prevent this happening, for example, are not putting the bin out for collection the night before collection day, ensuring that the tag is written on with the address of the property and being generally vigilant with regard to their own and neighbours bins on the morning of collection.  However, one of the cornerstones to the system is that each householder is ultimately responsible for their own wheel bin, authorisation label and bin tag. 

 The Council is aware that occasional difficulties arise with the tagging system but this system will  remain in place until a better alternative is found.  In this regard it should be noted that various other systems are in place around the country but to date, this Council regards the current system as the most suitable.