Recycling fines to wait a little longer

The residents of Londonderry have been given more time by Derry City Council before they have to begin paying fines for misuse of their recycling bins. Residents face fines of up to one hundred pounds if they are caught misusing their blue recycling bins.

Before they start fining householders, a Derry City Council spokesperson said they would first conduct more research before they put the law which has already come into force, into practise.

The spokesperson revealed that Derry City Council had welcomed the new waste laws since they would help boost the Council’s endeavours to raise the rates of recycling in the areas under its jurisdiction.

The spokesperson further admitted that before the new laws were implemented the Council needed to do some housekeeping before conducting an awareness campaign among citizens on the new waste laws.

For small waste offences such as dumping the wrong waste in bins, the council can hand out fixed penalty notices of one hundred pounds. A householder can only be fined though once he or she ignores a previous warning. In cases of early payment of fines, the council can give a discount.

In support of the new initiative was Councillor Shaun Gallagher, the local SDLP Environment Spokesperson who argued that the fine was proper since when people put the wrong waste in recycling bins it increased the costs to the rate payers since re-sorting of such a bin had to be done.