Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The waste industry, following privatisation, is being run on a for-profit basis. A recycling policy cuts against the interest of profiteers. A modest proposal cuts against their interests in a modest fashion but a bolder and broader pro-recycling policy cuts more sharply, for obvious reasons. The more successful the recycling policy, the less waste there is and the less profit there is to be made from waste collection.

There is a contradiction between a pro-recycling policy and the interests of the forces that own and control the bin collection services. Given that they are in a position of power and influence, how are they likely to react? One option is to go for higher prices across the board. Another is to start charging for recycling, which would be an anti-environmental and reactionary policy. In this context there needs to be a debate not just about supporting this recycling initiative and going for bolder recycling initiatives, but about reversing the privatisation of the bin services, placing control of the bin services back in the hands of councils and the scrapping of bin charges. It can be argued that there will be a significant cost in doing that but there is already a significant cost in supporting the pro-privatisation policy.

When I was a councillor on Cork City Council, engineers explained to me that since the privatisation of the bins and the introduction of bin charges, there had been a tenfold increase in fly-tipping and illegal dumping. That is paid for from the public purse, not by the companies who benefited from the privatisation of bin services. The policy needs to be linked to the promotion of more widespread and bold recycling measures. One cannot have a debate on a recycling initiative without touching on the question of incineration. We have a huge incinerator at Poolbeg, which was supported by the previous Minister for the Environment, Deputy Alan Kelly, and there are attempts to establish a major toxic waste incinerator at Ringaskiddy in County Cork. An incinerator is like a monster - once it is up and running it has to be fed. It cannot operate at 10% or 20% capacity if it is being run by big business on a for-profit basis. Poolbeg will certainly be fed, with 600,000 tonnes per annum and 120 trucks per day. The bolder a recycling policy is, the more it cuts against the interests of the owners of incinerators because the more waste that is recycled the less will go to incinerators, cutting into their profits. If the incinerator companies have less waste to feed them they will import waste to maximise profit. Part of this debate has to be on the massive ramping up of recycling efforts and moving against the policy of incineration.

I will finish on this remark. The interests of big business and the environment cannot be reconciled. Globally, over the course of the past 30 years, more than 50% of emissions have come from 25 companies. The global campaign to save the environment must be linked to a challenge to the profit system.

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