Waste firm may be fined for not collecting green bins

Dublin City Council has apologised to householders after it was revealed that the company which previously operated the capital's green bin service had failed to collect recyclable waste in the capital.

The council said Oxigen may face possible fines after a number of people complained over non-collection of recyclable refuse over the past number of weeks.

The waste group held the contract to collect recyclable refuse from in excess of 360,000 households in the four Dublin local authority areas until December 31st when it was replaced by a new company Greyhound Recycling.

At last night’s monthly meeting of Dublin City Council, Labour Party councillor Sean Kenny raised the question of the non-collection of green bins in the capital between the Christmas/New Year holiday period.

“I believe that it was a mistake by Dublin City Council management to introduce the green bin collection contract changeover during an extended holiday period. It would have made more sense to make the changeover on the 31st January or 31st March, for example. I hope that this lesson will now be learnt by Dublin City Council for the future” said Mr Kenny.

“At last night’s council meeting I gave specific examples of areas in my constituency where recent green bin collections did not take place. Councillors from other areas in the city made similar complaints and the problem appears to be more widespread.It should be noted that householders accumulate more green waste over the festive Christmas season compared to any other time of the year” he added.

Fianna Fáil councillor Tom Brabazon said that he had been inundated with with phone calls from angry residents who had their waste collected.

"Bins which are extra full after Santa are being left out on streets because residents do not know when the bins are being collected. Some of these are being knocked over and spillages are occuring which are very unsightly," he said.

Householders have been urged to contact the council if recyclable waste has not been collected in their area during the past few weeks.

Dublin City Council apologised to householders today over the failure of Oxigen to collect refuse and said that the local authorities and Greyhound Recycling was endeavouring to deal with this issue as quickly as possible.

It said that where streets or areas have not been serviced, Greyhound Recycling will arrange collections before the end of this week. In individual cases where missed bins have not been collected, householders can leave additional dry recyclable materials beside their green bin on the next collection day.

When contacted by The Irish Timestoday no response was available from Oxigen regarding the council's investigation.