Our bins should be plentiful and free to use

Driving in any part of rural Ireland, one sees black refuse sacks thrown into hedges along with unwanted sofas, child car seats, and other general litter jettisoned from passing cars.

The problem of illegal dumping has increased significantly in the last 10 years and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and local authorities are struggling to cope.

Ireland’s beautiful countryside is being slowly destroyed.

Our current domestic refuse disposal policies incentivises the dumping of domestic waste over the nearest hedge.

Human nature is to always find the lowest cost solution, and for a small minority, this means chucking one’s rubbish into a nearby field, stream, drain, ditch or forest.

No other EU country has this problem, as domestic refuse charges are incorporated into property tax or other local taxes.

Their bins are usually plentiful and free to use.

Times have moved on since “polluter pays” domestic waste charges polices were first introduced in Ireland. We have extensive recycling and converting of domestic waste to low level fuel.

Some landfills are even lying mostly idle these days. Is it now time to re-look at how we charge for domestic waste removal so as to de-incentivise illegal dumping.

Gerald Duffy

Pouladuff Road

Cork