The bottom line is that charges serve an important environmental purpose. They have been in place in many parts of the country for some time and their recent introduction in Dublin brings domestic waste management practice in Ireland into line with EU norms. Leaving aside these environmental imperatives, it is noteworthy that at no stage during the current debate have those opposed to waste charges offered any credible alternative solution as to how we can tackle our waste management problems. The anti-bin charge lobby has a comfortably simplistic view of how to deal with domestic waste. It thinks that waste management should be looked after by local authorities and not involve the wider community and society and that local authorities can take away householders' waste at no cost to anyone and dispose of it nowhere, if possible.