Rural Wexford residents short-changed as brown bins the size of ‘small shopping basket’ provided by waste companies

By Simon Bourke, Wexford People

Efforts to protect the environment in rural Co Wexford are being stymied by compost bins no bigger than a “small shopping basket”. To make matters more galling, their urban counterparts are being given full-size wheelie bins to dispose of their compostable waste. Raising the issue at the June meeting of the Enniscorthy Municipal District (EMD) Councillor John O’Rourke asked why those living in the countryside were being short-changed.

“Some of the stuff going on with the private companies at the moment, particularly the rural parts, is unreal,” he said. “Some people are being given a brown bin that is the size of a small shopping basket while the people in the urban areas are getting normal-sized bins, it beggars belief. The companies are telling the people that this brown bin is sustainable and should be able to deal with their waste over a two-week period.”

“The companies might make the argument that people are going to compost their food waste, but this diminishes the whole thing. These people are paying their bills, the same as everyone else, and being treated like this by these companies.”

Continuing the sustainability theme, Cllr O’Rourke said it had to come to his attention that the much-lauded deposit return scheme was beginning to wane in popularity.

“I’ve spoken to some tidy towns group and they’ve said they’re back picking bottles and cans, the prestige and value is gone from the scheme,” he said. “I even notice it myself when I’m walking around, you’d easily pick up 8-10 cans.”

Cllr Aidan Browne meanwhile, was concerned about wheelie bins discommoding pedestrians.

“There’s a lot of them in the town causing issues for the visually impaired on footpaths, who do we contact on that?” he asked.

He was informed that, in some instances, traffic wardens can issue fines to those who leave their bins on paths for prolonged periods. Cllr Pat Kehoe, however, had an alternative plan.

“Could we put stickers on the bins, yellow, orange, or red, depending on how long they’re there, informing people they have to be remove?” he suggested. “We would could give people the chance to remove them before we take action.”

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