Green Party councillor, Deirdre de Burca, responded to recent media reports that County Wicklow has the lowest recorded levels of recycling in the country by claiming that these figures relate only to the waste collected by private waste companies.

De Burca says she was shocked that County Wicklow was reported to have a recycling rate of only 2% of household waste in the county. She says that this figure compares poorly to other counties where recycling levels of up to 30% and higher had been achieved.

"While these figures are 2004 figures, they are a sad reflection on the recycling record of private waste companies in this county" she says. "I argued when we were privatising the waste collection services in Wicklow that private companies are in the business of profit-making and have little real interest in recycling or environmental protection".

De Burca says that she welcomes these figures being made publicly available so that the public can be aware of what is happening to the waste that the private waste companies are collecting from them.

"I’m sure the people of Wicklow were not impressed to hear that 98% of their waste is being landfilled" she says. "People don't want to give their custom to waste companies who have poor environmental track records. I'm not going to name any particular companies in County Wicklow but they had better start pulling their socks up and increasing their recycling rates. If not, people will certainly start giving their business to other more environmentally progressive waste companies. That's what competition is all about".