Sinn Féin Cllr John Dwyer has reiterated his party's commitment to overturning the present system of Bin Charges in County Wexford and to campaigning for a sensible alternative to the current unjust system. Cllr Dwyer was speaking at a meeting of Sinn Féin Councillors and local election candidates held in Wexford on Tuesday night.
Cllr Dwyer said:
"The present system of Bin Charges amounts to a blanket taxation on households. It is inequitable, it acts against good waste management policy and cannot be a valid solution to the under funding of local authorities. It is a fundamentally dishonest double taxation. Sinn Féin local election candidates remain committed to overturning the present system and to replacing it with a just and sensible alternative.
"A necessary first step to proper waste management policy has to involve targeting the primary source of waste. There has been little or no focus, in the debate so far, placed on the corporate sector which does in fact bear most responsibility for producing unnecessary waste.
"Sinn Féin does recognise that absolutely 'free of charge' waste disposal mitigates against the reduce, reuse and recycling effort. A charge based only on the actual cost of disposal of unrecyclable rubbish would be an acceptable step as part of overall reform of waste management policy. Such a charge must offer clear incentives and allowances for those who produce less waste, for those who recycle household waste and for those on lower incomes.
"The introduction of a tag a bin system backed up by genuinely proactive action on behalf of local councils to facilitate a real recycling effort, coupled with education and logic on the part of the local authorities could see domestic household waste reduced by up to 66% within six months of its introduction. A tag a bin system would also mean that households pay only for the waste that they actually produce.
"As a first step to begin this process, every household in the county should be provided with a composting bin by the local authority. Where this is impractical, in flats or where space will not permit, then the councils should provide communal composting facilities.
"Free recycling collections by local authorities and private bin collectors must also form part of the waste management solution.
"The long term consequences of not recycling, the push by corporate Europe towards incineration, the environmental damage of landfill and letting future generations deal with all of the resulting problems, must form part of the education program to foster a spirit of community response to the waste crisis.
"Waste collection must not be used by local authorities as a revenue generating device. To do so, is to destroy the genuine will of many thousands of households to greatly reduce the volumes of rubbish generated each year in County Wexford."
