The Ridiculous Rates Residents are Charged for Improperly Discarding Waste in Ireland

Residents of the Dublin region will soon have to be careful which items they put in each of their waste bins, as it could cost them the equivalent of almost $37 if a single item is out of place.

Some have claimed that the government has not yet addressed the area’s waste collection issues, and although this new rule is a step in the right direction, many citizens haven’t yet heard about it and will soon be unknowingly charged for making waste disposal mistakes. The Dublin West constituency has begun to worry about the implications of the policy.

One waste collector in particular, called Panda, has started to put fees into place on their own, creating a set of conditions that will charge residents no less than $14 for placing an item into the incorrect container. Even the smallest of errors will be penalized according to these new conditions, and city officials aren’t happy.

The government is reportedly failing to take action and enabling companies like Panda to act completely independently of any other entity. Unfortunately, this means ridiculously high and unexpected charges for customers who don’t abide by waste management rules, and unnecessary extra revenue for waste collectors.

Instead of letting the current situation remain the way it is, many feel that government officials should be taking action and putting clearly defined, universal rules into place to save money and help the almost $1.4 billion industry run more smoothly.

There is some good news among the bad, however. A governmental debate concerning a waste management policy regulator recently took place, and both sides agreed on introducing a weight-based charging system instead of the current money-grabbing rules that punish honest mistakes.

Of course, most citizens can minimize how much they spend on waste-related occurrences if they recycle reusable materials with green bins and put compostable material into brown bins. But this does little to stop the sheer quantity of garbage households produce, and that’s a problem that truly begins with consumers simply buying too much.

The garbage disposal problem has become so serious in the area that there were two emergency situations in 2016 alone, both of which required immediate action. It’s predicted that by 2020, there will be no waste companies left over to handle more than two months of household waste. Even so, households don’t seem to be aware, and if they are, they don’t care much about the problem.

With this information, all involved organizations have decided that charging each household by garbage weight is the best solution. Residents will save money through buying less and avoiding possible fees, while the region will gain some relief from the reduction in overall waste. Waste collectors can now charge customers related to kilos, lifts, weight bands, and weight allowance systems.

The infuriatingly high cost of mixing up trash is under control for now, and Dublin plans to keep it that way. The government and waste industry both hope to see noticeable results in a short period of time.