An Opposition TD has said it is time to consider renationalising the waste collection service.
Jennifer Whitmore, Social Democrats Spokesperson on Climate and Biodiversity, said she believed the system should come under the fundamental services that the State provides.
One of the country's largest waste collection companies, Panda, has announced plans to introduce a charge for brown bin collection.
It intends to introduce a fee of €3.80 per bin for around 72,000 customers from 8 May.
The move has been defended by the Irish Waste Management Association.
However, Ms Whitmore told RTÉ's Morning Ireland that now is not the time to introduce fresh costs for customers.
She said: "It's not that these companies aren't profitable companies. What we should be aiming to do is actually make sure that people are not penalised for doing the right thing.
"I think at the moment, when people are facing such incredible cost rises across every single sector, that to now increase something that was given to people for free because it was a public benefit - I think that may actually be counterproductive."
Waste management companies have a responsibility to encourage people to do the right thing with their rubbish and separate it properly, Ms Whitmore said.
It is better for the environment if households put food waste into a composting service, she added.
"We have waste target reductions of 50% by 2030. It is better for the environment that we actually put our food waste into composting service.
"So I think companies need to look at their profits in the round and not specifically look at what it costs for them to lift and collect a brown bin say versus what it costs to lift and collect the rubbish bin," she said.
Ms Whitmore said the polluter pays concept should be applied to general waste bins, rather than recycling bins.
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Elsewhere, the Tánaiste has told the Dáil that Ireland has made "extraordinary progress" in how it disposes of waste.
Micheál Martin said that the last two decades showed "continuous progress".
But he said that Government "will keep the situation under review", especially in relation to charges.
He was responding to Bríd Smith, Solidarity-PBP TD, who said that the privatisation of waste has been "disastrous" for the environment, workers and householders, and called for its renationalisation.
She condemned Panda Recycling's decision, announced yesterday, to charge for organic waste despite its "enormous" profits.
Panda "is the biggest waste provider in the country", Ms Smith said.
"You're disincentivising people" from recycling, she added, during heated exchanges with the Tánaiste.
