Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is news to me. I know that in my part of the country there are wheelie bins that are the same as the blue and green bins. I am surprised to hear it and will investigate the matter on foot of the Deputy's comments. We need to encourage people in that regard as the primary objective is to try to reduce the amount of material being put into the black bin. We have introduced the revised regime because there are four landfill sites in the country, but by the end of the year we will be down to three. The very last option should be the placing of material in landfill sites. Quite a lot of material is being placed in landfill sites that should never be placed in them. Organic material should be a high priority in that regard. I will look into the Deputy's point.

We have recycling ambassadors going door to door across the country, speaking to householders and giving them a magnetic list that can be placed on a fridge detailing what can be put into a recycling bin. We are encouraging people to segregate waste properly. That initiative also kicked off towards the back end of the year. The pilot scheme was initially developed by Sligo County Council where it worked very well in bringing about the segregation of waste. That is why it was rolled out nationwide.

Deputy Brian Stanley mentioned statistics and the household recycling rate going from 47% to 45%, but we hope the figure will rise again. The Deputy is right in that the primary objective should be to try to reduce the generation of waste in the first place. That is why last year we brought all of the retailers in the country together to look at ways in which we could reduce the amount of waste or packaging generated in the first place. One of the first companies out of the block was Lidl which got rid of discounted rates for multiple purchases of fruit and vegetables which in many cases, unfortunately, ended up in either the black or brown bin. Bread presents another big problem, although I know that it was in scarce supply last month. We are trying to encourage people not to generate waste in the first place. I attended the European Council of Ministers' meeting last Monday week and this was a discussion we had, both in public and private. We considered how packaging and plastic waste, in particular, could be reduced.

It is an admirable goal that all plastic material will be recyclable by 2030, however, we need to focus on not generating it in the first place. In advance of the crisis created by China's ban on plastic waste, I had written to the Commission on that point specifically.

Deputy Dooley asked about the waste watchdog, the household waste price monitoring group. This group was put in place to ensure there would not be price gouging when we made the transition from the flat rate system to the system based on use. As members know, a range of usage systems have been put in place. We were quite open to the type of systems that would be used. There are approximately nine different types of usage systems in place across the country.

There are 120 different price factors, service charge, lift charge, kilogram weight charge that were recorded in the latest report that was between November and December 2017, some 20 changes were made November and December, 12 had decreased and eight had increased. One provider recorded a decrease in the service charge per months from €17 to €12 per month and decreased the per kilogram weight charge from 22 cent to 19 cent. Other providers quoted lower lift charges, a reduction from €12.80 in November to €12.30 in December. Some companies increased charges, one company had a service charge and charge per lift plus excess charge. The quoted service charge went from €4.14 to €4.17, so there was a marginal increase. On average there has been relative price stability since the price monitoring group started looking at charges last September. All of the price monitoring group reports are available on line.

The Fianna Fáil Party had proposed regulation and at that time, I said that I was open minded. I still remain open minded. As members know the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, is conducting a review of the industry and will complete it later this year. I will act on its recommendations. Let us wait and see what the CCPC recommends. The CCPC did not participate in the watchdog because it was carrying out this review and felt to do so would compromise its position. We have a good mix of consumer advocates on the monitoring group, and their output is fully transparent.

Deputy Stanley is correct on illegal dumping. I believe that illegal dumping is both economic and environment treason. That is why we have increased the funding to €2 million for community groups that want to clean up blackspots around the country. We are working with the local authorities in looking at innovative ways to monitor particular locations. I hope we will secure prosecutions. We are providing additional resources to the EPA and through the EPA to the local authorities to enforce the legislation in this area. I have given additional powers to the regional waste management offices so that there are regional inspectors that can go along and deal with cross-county breaches in the legislation. I will bring forward revisions in the legislation on littering. I believe strongly that it is totally unacceptable to litter and dump waste. I am open to new suggestions and ideas.

The closure of the Chinese market for waste has caused us a problem. We are liaising quite closely with the waste sector and the waste regulatory authorities regarding the impact of these restrictions. Basically China has closed its doors to recyclable material. The vast majority of material that was generated in Europe, both paper and plastic was recycled in China. It is possible to get other markets for some of this material but in order for us to obtain other markets, it must be clean recyclable material. The problem arises because of what is presented in the green and blue bins at present.