(en) Anarkismo.net: Ireland, Dublin city council's new rubbish police - a solution or just more bureacratic nonsense? ~ CookingFood.Org

Dublin City Council have new by laws to permit officials to interrogate members of the
public as to how they are disposing of their rubbish. When the councils started charging
for waste disposal years back numerous people refused to pay, the councils then withdrew
their collections and ultimately the service was privatised. At the time of the
introduction of a fee for rubbish collection some environmentalists argued it was a good
thing that would lead to greater recycling and lower waste production. The councils began
charging for recycling also of course. Whilst the campaign against the bin tax ultimately
ended in failure, many people for economic reasons simply opted out of the waste disposal
system, there was an increase in illegal dumping, using of street litter bins and burning
of domestic rubbish.
We ended up with a dirtier environment and more polluted air. Waste volumes varied little
as the packaging industry knew it was the consumer who would be paying the price not them.
People worked out various other ways of disposing of rubbish, whilst there were still
waivers for people on low incomes many shared their bins with others, some people paying
shared bins with neighbours or family, others used commercial disposal facilities at their
workplaces, as a result the councils noticed that many homes have no official waste
disposal facility.

The reason the current by-laws are being introduced, we are told, is illegal dumping in
Dublin city. A lack of fireplaces in dwellings in some of the areas affected has closed
off that method of disposal, the ending of waiver schemes hasn't helped either, some
private rented accommodation has poor or non-existent waste disposal. In the current
recession, with reduced incomes and increased stealth taxes, people are selective of what
bills take priority. So Dublin city council, which withdrew its bin collections and
abandoned those who could not afford the new charges, is now going to start knocking on
doors to demand proof of how people get rid of their waste, with the right to impose 75
euro on-the-spot fines!

The funding for the new officials I assume will come from the property tax. This is only
happening in Dublin thus far, but may spread as an idea beloved of the sort of out of
touch idiots who are at the top of local government. Here is what I think will happen:
fines will be imposed and duly ignored by those unable to pay for waste disposal and then
added to the vast mountain of unpaid fines currently outstanding in the country.
Politicians and officials will go on blaming the poor for the problem and there will be no
effort to address the real underlying economic and production issues. People will go on
burning and dumping rubbish. The fines will be increased at some point, some tabloid paper
will do an expose on a family that hasn't a waste contract etc.

by James McBarron - Workers Solidarity Movement