Waste operator Panda is being urged to launch a campaign to customers before its starts to implement its new terms and conditions.

Local Fianna Fáil Senator, Lorraine Clifford Lee made the call after being contacted by several people who are very concerned about being penalised for making honest mistakes with regard to waste collection and recycling.

She said: "Panda's new T&Cs would mean that even an honest mistake of putting one plastic bag into the blue recycling bin could result in a fine of €25.

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"This, without a proper information campaign to householders, would be very unfair, and would, I believe, be just a way of increasing profits for the company.

"I am also very concerned by Panda's changes to their contracts that would allow them to entering a person's property to inspect their bins. This seems very heavy handed to me, and without justification.

"These contractual changes, introduced without any form of public information campaign, are a direct response to Minister Naughten's changes to the national waste collection regime.

"It appears to me to be, for all intents and purposes, a mechanism to increase profits rather than reduce contamination by non-recyclable materials.

"No one, I believe deliberately chooses to put the wrong materials into the wrong bin. People's lives are busy, and mistakes can happen."

(CD/LM)