Minister Kelly must scrap recycling charges scheme – McGrath
Independent TD Mattie McGrath has called on the Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly to immediately suspend the introduction of increases in the cost of recycling household waste. Deputy McGrath was speaking after Minister Kelly signalled he is set to approve additional per kilo costs which will be passed on to families:
“If the Minister was as creative in finding ways to address the homelessness crisis as he has been in creating extra charges for households, we might actually get somewhere.
Instead, yet again he is set to pass on extra and unsustainable costs to families when he should be targeting industries which produce vasts amount of packaging waste.
We know for instance that product-to-package ratio is a major contributor to the amount of recyclable material.
We also know there are massive discrepancies between recycling charges in different parts of the country, sometimes amounting to as much as 100 Euro.
Until we tackle that level of unfairness, it seems vindictive to even contemplate increasing recycling charges for families who can least afford it,”concluded Deputy McGrath.
