Greyhound Recycling has denied claims made yesterday by People Before Profit that it fined a Dublin household €30 for placing a single tea bag in their recycling bin.

Criticising Greyhound for fining householders for contaminating green waste, PBP TD Brid Smith said the company had refused to take rubbish bins from the house until the fine was paid.

Rejecting the charge, however, Greyhound said it operates a “fair usage policy” whereby householders who “persistently present contaminated green bins” are fined.

However, it said only bins that are consistently overweight are selected for monitoring and the householder is informed in writing that their green bin is being monitored.

Pictures are taken if contamination is found: “The householder is then given 14 days to appeal. Nobody is presented with a surcharge for having a single teabag in their green bin,” said the company.

Separately, mother-of-three Nicola McHugh (38) from Ballyfermot claimed she was fined €30 by Greyhound as her green bin was contaminated with three biscuits and a slice of bread.

Denying that she had contaminated the bin, she said there was a possibility her young children may have mistakenly placed food waste into the wrong bin, or someone passing by.

“The kids could have put it in the bin, anyone could have put it in the bin. My bins are in my front garden, it could have been anyone. But for a few biscuits, I can’t understand it.”

“I rang them and they told me there was three toffee pop biscuits and a slice of bread in my green bin and that’s why they gave me the fine,” she told The Irish Times.

‘Low levels of contamination’

Saying that she had never had any previous issues , Ms McHugh said a warning would have been more suitable. She now plans to cancel her account and use the Ballymount landfill and recycling centre, instead.

“For the month it will work out at about €20 but I would rather give the money to them than to a private company because of what they have done.

“If they had even sent me a warning or something, they gave me no warning, I just got this fine sent straight out. I recycle everything, I watch everything that I put into my bins.”

Neighbours had received similar fines, she said: “I saw a post on Facebook, a man had gotten the same letter as me and 60 or 70 people replied saying the same thing had happened to them,” she added.

Deputy Smith said: “Very low levels of contamination are ending up or resulting in fines of €30. That’s a hefty fine for anyone who’s on low-pay, social welfare payments. “It seems to me completely wrong, that for such a low level of contamination, it’s not a dead dog in a bin, it’s a biscuit or a lollipop or a tea bag.”

She added: “Some people do need to be educated on how to separate and recycle, but this is not re-educating anybody...It’s turning them away from recycling. It’s going to have the opposite effect of what it should be doing.”