The new charges come in on Tuesday.

Thousands of Irish households are set to be hit with extra bin charges this week. Panda Recycling is starting a charge of €3.80 for each compost bin lift from Tuesday which will affect thousands of families. Panda Recycling is one of the biggest waste collection companies in the country. The new charge is for food and garden waste in compost bins and many have said it will discourage them from recycling. Last year, the company increased its general waste bin-lift charges by over 12% and has raised its service charges. It now costs €10.25 for a lift of a general waste bins - a rise of €1.13 since September 2022. The rise in the latest bin charge means that a household couple will be paying an extra €50 per year for waste collection. Panda Recycling has an estimated 360,000 customers in Ireland who will be impacted by these charges. Speaking to Newstalk about the charges, Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore said that bringing in these charges is counterproductive. She said: “We want people to do the right thing when it comes to our waste. “We want people to recycle and we want people to compost. “In order for them to do that we need to encourage them to do it and not penalise them when they do it so I think it is a counterproductive move by Panda.”

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