BUSINESSES in the centre of Dublin are using the city's streets as a "rubbish tip" by leaving "mini mountains of waste" on the footpaths every morning, according to the Green Party's environment spokesman, Mr Gerry Boland.
In a one hour period last week Mr Boland used up two rolls of film taking photographs of piles of rubbish outside shops, restaurants, pubs and other business premises, all of it awaiting collection by Dublin Corporation.
He said these traders seemed to think nothing of the visual mess and obstruction they were causing on the city's pavements and it showed a "complete disregard" for the streets and the people who used them.
Mr Boland said it was clear the IBEC initiative to establish recycling targets for industry "launched with a big hoopla over six months ago, hasn't even got off the ground if my photographs are any indication".
It was common for businesses to put out their rubbish too late for collection and "instead of being civic minded by taking it back in again, it's often left out on the street overnight to be blown around the place".
He pointed out that Paris had introduced "wheelie bins" for residents and businesses 15 years ago and the same system had been adopted in a number of Irish towns. "But in Dublin, we're still in the dark ages," he said.
Mr Boland, who has been selected as the Green Party candidate in Dublin South for the next general election, said the situation in the city was also an indictment of the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin.
His two rolls of film provided "a one hour snapshot of how inactive the current Minister has been in tackling Dublin's waste problem", despite the "fuss" he had made about enacting new waste management legislation.
"There is an urgent need for the Minister to take positive action by implementing measures which will enable people to reduce the amount of waste they throw out and reuse or recycle as much as possible," he added.
Among the measures favoured by the Green Party are compulsory waste separation at source, with collections for paper, glass, aluminium cans, plastic bottles, textiles and hazardous materials, to reduce reliance on landfill dumps.
