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

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

Related Link: http://www.wsm.ie