Brown bins for all households in January

Brown bins are going to be rolled out to all households, urban and rural, across Westmeath from January, and the first three months are free. Latest figures show that Westmeath performed poorly in terms of brown bin usage last year, but the county council has discovered discrepancies in the figures provided and the county’s rating is expected to rise when they are corrected.

Addressing a meeting of the Environment SPC in December, John Jackson announced that the council had started holding quarterly meetings with the five waste collection companies operating in the county, to monitor performance against targets. "We are keeping our finger on the pulse in terms of their activities," he declared.

As a result of those meetings, the council quickly identified that a lot of the figures are incorrect and that explains why Westmeath is so low down the table. It was discovered that the lowest performing area, Monksland in Athlone, should have been in the Roscommon figures; and one of the operators submitted Wexford figures for Westmeath.

"There are similar contractors operating in Longford, Offaly, Meath, across the border from us, and suddenly when they come into Westmeath their figures just fall through the floor. So now we have to identify why that is happening," Mr Jackson remarked.

There were also discrepancies among other operators about the number of customers they had. One reported having more than 7,000 customers when in fact the figure was closer to 6,000. Some of the contractors were not reporting that they had sub-contractors working on their behalf, whose figures were being excluded too.

The outcome of the meetings with the kerbside collectors is that they are being requested to submit correct figures. "It’s hard to monitor and measure if the figures are incorrect. We have identified some clear points that need to be corrected immediately," Mr Jackson stated.

Free bin caddies are available at any time from the council or from waste contractors. A survey of commercial food waste was carried out and the council ensured that all enterprises that should have a brown bin had one.

Cllr Johnnie Penrose was told that there will be a charge for brown bins, but as waste collection is going to be charged per weight, the more you can reduce the weight of your general waste bin, the cheaper it will be overall.

Some good price plans have been put in place offering three months of free collection of brown bins. Cost was a big issue with consumers, but the council have gone through the price plans and are happy with them. Collectors are contacting all their customers and offering them the service and measuring the refusals, so the council can keep track of how many are refusing to take up the service, Mr Jackson explained.

The council will continue to meet collectors each quarter and go through the figures and they have agreed to support a promotional campaign to encourage brown big use.

Cllr Tom Farrell, chairman of the SPC, was told that the discrepancies in figures will be corrected straight away and Westmeath’s rating should improve accordingly. He called for a brown bin week to get the message out.

Cllr Paul Hogan suggested that NOAC, which collects data from external agencies, should review how data is collected and generated to ensure full accuracy. He welcomed legislation that entitles everyone to brown bins, but what happens to the person who is not a customer of any collector and takes their own refuse to collection centres? Who provides them with their brown bins? How can we bridge that gap? Will a waive scheme be in place for brown bins? he asked

Jack O’Sullivan, environmental consultant, asked how many waste collection companies operate in Westmeath and how much of what goes in brown bins is not compostable and should not be in there.

Teresa Newman, PPN, asked if it will be compulsory to have brown bins. People depending on the pension may not be able to afford them, she said.

Mr Jackson said that those not using kerbside collection services will be offered free caddy bins. In a lot of cases, the caddy bins are sufficient. A lot of houses in the towns will be using the caddy bins, he predicted.

He accepted that it was "a tricky one" in that we cannot force them to take brown bins, but once they can demonstrate that they are getting rid of their waste in the correct manner, they don’t have to have a brown bin, he said.

The legislation states that the operators have to offer the service. People can refuse it, but have to show that they are doing something with their food waste, whether it is taking it to a waste recycling centre or feeding it to animals, he added.

There are five waste collection operators in Westmeath, four large and one small. The council will discuss with the operators how to handle hardship cases at their next quarterly meeting.