Bin errors leave waste collections in a heap

Date Published: 20-Sep-2012

by DERMOT KEYS

Galway City Council has warned people that the failure to properly sort their recycling bins is leading to entire bins of recyclable material being dumped in a landfill.

Households in the city are allocated three wheelie bins to cater for different types of rubbish, including non-compostable items that cannot be recycled (grey), food and garden waste (brown), and dry and clean recyclables (green).

However, the Galway City Council Refuse Team has revealed that they have had to dump entire loads of waste because people are placing non-compostable items in their brown bin or non-recyclable items in their green bin.

The problem can be something as simple as placing food waste in a plastic bag and putting the entire bag into their brown bin. The Refuse Team has asked people to take more care when sorting their bins in order to avoid unnecessarily sending recyclable or compostable material to the landfill.

They have stressed that only compostable plastic bags can be used, not ordinary ones or even biodegradeable ones.

The issue of uncollected rubbish is also becoming a problem in many parts of the city, according to Galway City Councillor Nuala Nolan.

Cllr Nolan noted that many people are leaving rubbish out over the weekend and that this was creating an eyesore in parts of the city.

“The main reason for this is that students put out their rubbish bags or bins before they head home for weekends, usually Thursday evening or Friday mornings. Most private and public collections of household rubbish are early on Monday morning. This means that some bags or bins are left on the streets for three to four days.”

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.