The price freeze agreed between the Government and the household waste collection sector means the implementation of the European Union’s “polluter pays” principle is now on hold in two vital environmental areas in the Republic.
Under the EU water framework directive, member states, it is generally agreed, are obliged to charge for water, while numerous EU directives have sought to impose the polluter pays principle in relation to all types of waste, including household waste.
Service providers
The introduction of water charges has already been parked. Yesterday’s announcement on bin charges means something similar has now occurred for household waste.
Many of the service providers for household waste operate pay-by-lift or flat monthly charge systems, so there is no incentive for their customers to reduce waste. The downside is that it militates against Ireland’s efforts to deal with its landfill crisis.
While the bin companies are now obliged to give customers bills that show what they would be charged if they converted to pay-by-weight, the fact that bills are being frozen for a year reduces the incentive for producing less waste.
The consensus appears to be that implementation of a national pay-by-weight system will have significant benefits for most customers and benefit the environment. However, a combination of the post-election political vacuum and opportunism by the waste collection companies has put back the implementation of the policy for a year at least.
The previous government had a policy of introducing competitive tendering for the monopoly provision of household waste services in different local authority areas, but decided in 2012 to continue with the current model of having competition between operators within the market. One of the reasons was a fear the switch to competitive tendering might provoke a withdrawal of service.
Market model
As well as keeping the current system, it was also decided the Competition Authority would produce a report on competition in the household waste market by 2016, but that has been held back because of a shortage of relevant data.
The key shortage was in relation to household waste streams and it was decided, by the authority’s successor, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, that the data would only become available in the third quarter of this year, with the introduction of the pay-by- weight system.
The commission decided the proposed study could not be supplied by this year. With yesterday’s decision, the ability of the commission to produce the report is put back further.
The competition in the market model that Ireland operates is unusual for an EU state and may be less competitive and therefore more expensive than the competitive tendering model elsewhere.
With a report on the issue delayed, so too is the introduction of the polluter pays principle for household waste.