Municipal waste services in Athlone will cease before the end of the year after the Town Council followed the county’s lead at this month’s meeting (November 2 ), and conceded its inability to commercially compete with the eight private companies operating in the county.
All members of the town council bar the two gentlemen of the left, Messrs Henson (Lab ) and Hogan (SF ), voted to adopt the executive’s report recommending the end of the service which the council ran at a €198,000 loss this year. To break even, the town council would have to charge €12 per bin tag next year.
The €2m waste disposal industry in Athlone takes care of the refuse of 11,000 people, the meeting heard.
Ray Kenny, Director of Environmental Services for the county, told the meeting that the town council’s bin tags were already one third more expensive than its nearest competitor (€10 and €7.50 ).
Also, under the 1996 Waste Disposal Act which began to rationalise the service and sounded the death knell for Ballydonagh landfill, local authorities had an integral role as regulators of this sector and as such, according to Mr Kenny, this leads to a “conflict if we’re operators as well”.
Mr Kenny also pointed out, that with the closure of the Ballydonagh landfill site between Moate and Athlone expected before the end of April 2010, Athlone Town Council was going to have to look to other counties for its landfill requirements until brown bins come on stream and incineration is less of a political hot potato.
The introduction of brown bins for organic waste is being driven by central Government, and is expected to cost the county an estimated €0.5m over the next five years.
Councillors generally accepted the state of affairs in waste management, but the one concern voiced by a number of the elected representatives was the waiver system in place for the poor and vulnerable.
At the moment, there are 986 households in Athlone on the waiver scheme.
Mr Kenny explained that the county council had not yet worked out how to figure out this system but had put together a three-person committee with a representative from each of the main parties to examine the issues around the waiver and to report back to the council at its next meeting.
Athlone Town Council decided to add one of their number to this committtee and Alan Shaw (FG ) was chosen for this.
Mr Kenny pointed out to Cllr Sheila Buckley Byrne (Ind ) that a final decision on the imposition of a waiver scheme in the county would be on hold until a High Court case on the issue brought by Dublin City Council was resolved.
The issue hangs on the fairness of the imposition of routes on private operators, in that an area with a high percentage of social housing would have a corresponding number of people with a tag waiver and thus, would be a less popular route to be allocated.
Already, four independent national reports have suggested the waiver scheme must be implemented but did not suggest how to impose this nationwide.
Cllr Kieran Molloy enquired about the difficult-to-reach and out-of-the-way areas and what might be the waste collection situation with those.
“I have no doubt about this,” said Mr Kenny.
“There haven’t been any difficulties with this [issue] in Longford, Roscommon, Offaly, Meath.”
Another issue of interest to the councillors was the impending arrival of the brown bin scheme for organic waste.
Mr Kenny told the meeting the scheme was being driven by central Government to fall in line with European directives but pointed out a pilot scheme last year amongst 1,000 selected households in Mullingar had only managed a street-side presentation of 20 per cent.
Also, he explained that the county council had not yet earmarked a site for the central collection of all the organic matter.
It is expected that, if run properly, another 30 per cent of bin volume could be saved by the proper disposal of kitchen and garden waste.
At the moment in Westmeath 30 per cent of all waste products - paper, plastics and metals - are recycled.
