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

The commercial sector is able to look very quickly at innovative ideas. We did not see much innovation in the old local authority system. The local authorities were not interested in providing services outside the towns. The commercial, private operators did that. Now it is being called terrible. Some people are suggesting that we go back to the old system and leave the people in rural areas high and dry, the way they were left before. That is not the way to go about fixing this issue. It is true that the commercial sector drives innovation, whether we like it or not. It has always driven innovations because there is an incentive for it to do so. I know one particular operator is looking at segregating paper out of the green bin because there is a commercial value for having that clean paper. There are incentives now to try and make sure that what is in the green bin is clean and reusable.

About 40% of what is going into our green and brown bins - if people bother to use the brown bins of course - is contaminated. It is worthless. We had 160 container-loads of cardboard sent back from Rotterdam because people were putting nappies into cereal boxes and putting them in the recycling bin. The contents of those 160 containers had to go into landfill because people were not prepared to segregate it out. Those are the issues that we are dealing with.

We have examples in Dublin where everyone will put out their black bin on collection day and only 2% or 3% will put out the brown bin because people are throwing food waste into the black residual bin. What we have been trying to do, and what we did in March, and what we have been doing with schoolchildren across this country is trying to encourage people to not generate food waste in the first place. The people who will disproportionately benefit from that are larger families. I see it myself, on foot of the awareness campaign, looking at the amount of bread that we throw out in my own house, and managing the amount that we buy. All of us have to change. We cannot continue throwing food waste into our black bins, but people do it because there is no consequence for that at the moment, even where the brown bins are available.

Apart from the cost of disposal, people are spending €700 a year in cash on food that is being disposed of. That is equivalent, on average, to twice the cost of house insurance on an annual basis. It is equivalent to twice the cost of bin charges in County Roscommon, and this is just being thrown away every year. We are trying to get people to think about how we can change what we are doing. Mr. Anthony Mulleady spoke on my local radio station last week about animals being thrown into the recycling bins. That is the sort of thing that is going on at the moment. Do we continue to tolerate and allow that? I do not think that we should or can allow that.

The waste of plastic is a huge issue. I took up the running on this as Minister last autumn and worked with the OECD and my Council of Ministers colleagues on the issue of microplastics in cosmetics and so forth. I know that the Green Party is coming on board with that idea as well, which is very positive. We can make significant progress on that. The problem with plastic is that it is an extremely difficult waste stream to manage because of the different types of plastic. Some are recyclable and some are not. This has to be dealt with at a multinational level, at a European level, and we are very engaged with our colleagues on this issue.

If I had the money to set up a bring back system I would probably put it into other recycling initiatives. It would be a better use of the money. We are all agreed on the objective. The mechanisms to get there are important. I am open to suggestions from everyone on this issue. I do not have all of the solutions, nor do I claim to have them. As I said at the start, I know that everyone is genuine and sincere about this issue. Our ultimate objective here is to try and protect householders in every way that we can, but we have to incentivise people to think about what they are throwing into the black bin. We do not have a choice. I do not want to see the landfill in my constituency, the only one outside of the Dublin region, expanded. Why should we have to take Senator Norris's refuse? He is saying that no one should pay for bins. If no one pays for bins more rubbish will be going into the black bin. Why should my constituency have to take Dublin's refuse? I do not see that we should have to do that, or any other county for that matter. It should not be the case for Galway, Roscommon, Mayo, Laois and Offaly either.

There is a cost involved in the treatment, segregation and recycling of waste.