There is a state of confusion among Galway city’s retailers who sell refuse and recycling bags and the City Council over new waste management regulations due to commence on July 1.
The new regulations state local businesses are prohibited from selling refuse and recycling bags, and customers must register with the city council and get three wheelie bins in order to have their rubbish collected as part of the Government’s drive to encourage the segregation and weighing of waste.
This was to be enforced alongside a new pay-by-weight charging system on July 1. However, Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government Simon Coveney last week suggested waste collection charges would be frozen until next year, leading to puzzlement on whether the ban on the sale of refuse and recycling bags by anyone other than the waste collector will be enforced.
Brendan Holland of Hollands Newsagents says, “I do not know what is happening now. I have written to every councillor and I have written to the Department and I still have not received an answer. I am just assuming it will go ahead now.”
Mr Holland continued, “I am in shock. The service we offer is that we sell recycling and general waste bin bags for people who do not have bins. It could be that they have no place to put them, they are temporary residents or they are students. We have sold over 10,000 in the last 18 months and then we get a letter from the City Council to say we cannot sell bin bags anymore.
