The waste collection companies say that the price rise is to cover the cost of the Government landfill levy.

Image: Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland

TENS OF THOUSANDS of households across Dublin face increased bin charges from today as waste collection companies up prices by more than 10 per cent.

The companies, which cover the four local authorities across Dublin, say that that the price rise is to cover the increase in the Government landfill levy.

Greyhound, which covers the area previously served by Dublin City Council, is increase the cost of a black bin lift by €1 from the current price of €6 to €7.  Greenstar and Panda have said that they will be passing on a pro-rate increase to customers.

The landfill levy, which is designed to encourage recycling and applies only to rubbish in black bags, will increase today to €65 per tonne. The price had previously been €50 per tonne.

The plans by the waste collection companies to increase the charges has been branded a ‘rip off’ and a ‘farce’ by local representatives, who have said that the rationale for the increase is spurious and does not stand up to scrutiny.

Greyhound took over the waste collection service from Dublin City Council at the end of January and had made it clear that there would be a price increase. The exact amount was not known until the last fortnight.

Greyhound plan to increase bin charges in Dublin a ‘farce’ >

Dublin council removes 48 street bins to deter illegal dumping >

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Christine Bohan

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• Kilkenny Cat 01/07/12 #

  Report this comment 97 56

  It’s still pretty cheap in comparison to some of the prices down the country. Time to suck it up Dublin and pay up!

  Reply

  • Tim Jackson 01/07/12 #

    Report this comment 4 8

    People will respond by dumping their rubbish on the streets instead. Price inflation acts as a shock to people already under a tight budget. This company is just greedy, plain and simple.

• Nellysroom 01/07/12 #

  Report this comment 8 80

  I now bin share with my neighbour and it’s halved my bill.
  I also compost and put as much into recycling as possible and add food scraps to my dogs dry food. You would be really surprised how little you can send to landfill by doing this and will save you money.

  Reply

  • Paul Mallon 01/07/12 #

    Report this comment 7 19

    Composting saves you a fortune!! Unfortunately in Fingal you’ve no option but to take the composting bin, stupid when you’re doing your own.

  • Tim Jackson 01/07/12 #

    Report this comment 4 5

    Nellysroom,

    I know people who will be dumping their rubbish on the roadsides and streets. They cannot afford to pay inflated prices to a greedy private company. They are already struggling households. Giving this company custom is as bad.

• Shane Griffin 01/07/12 #

  Report this comment 2 26

  @Paul Mahon, you may have to take the brown bin but you don’t have to fill it. Unless your point is that you would just rather not have an extra bin to store.

  Reply

  • Paul Mallon 01/07/12 #

    Report this comment 2 4

    Exactly Shane, and surely there could be a cheaper service option for people who don’t require the brown bin. Seems inefficient.

• Colin Foran 01/07/12 #

  Report this comment 3 22

  It’s €10 for a Bin bag every 2nd week in Sligo here, and you have to buy your Green wheelie bin at about €80. No matter where you live, you have to pay!

  Reply

  • Tim Jackson 01/07/12 #

    Report this comment 5 3

    No you don’t. Anyone can dump their rubbish to avoid paying a greedy private company. I know people already resorting to this. Now the council has extra clean-up work on their hands.

• Sean Herbert 01/07/12 #

  Report this comment 31 26

  I don’t see the problem, TBH.

  They’re a private company that needs to make a profit. The government increased the landfill fee by 30% – and Greyhound increase their fee by 16.6% to compensate. They’re still losing out.

  Anyone who blames Greyhound for this is an idiot with no sense of basic economics.

  Reply

  • G. Smith 01/07/12 #

    Report this comment 2 7

    The question here is why is the landfill charge up? The Dunksink tip is long closed now so I would assume there isn’t a charge to be passed on for buying new landfill land. New landfill regulations meaning new processing costs?

  • Sean Herbert 01/07/12 #

    Report this comment 10 18

    Exactly. if it’s the government who put the landfill charge up, then why are local representatives (e.g. councillor David McGuinness) branding the increase as a “farce” and passing the blame? Nobody in the government can blame Greyhound for this – but they are… and that’s the issue I have. Greyhound did it out of necessity.

  • Sean Herbert 01/07/12 #

    Report this comment 12 9

    Weird the way 15 people gave me a thumbs down, yet had no counter-argument.

  • Tim Jackson 01/07/12 #

    Report this comment 4 4

    That Herbert guy is living in some delusional world.

  • Sean Herbert 01/07/12 #

    Report this comment 5 7

    Amazing retort, Tim. You made some good counter-points there. I suppose you live in a world where a private company is expected to eat the cost when their overheads are increased by 30%.

  • Michael Quinn 01/07/12 #

    Report this comment 1 3

    The landfill charge only represents a percentage of outgoings for Greyhound. I don’t know exactly what the percentage is but I would imagine that a 16.6% increase to each household would more than cover this so calling people who are complaining idiots is very unfair especially since they are primarily complaining about the impact the increase will have on them.

  • Sean Herbert 01/07/12 #

    Report this comment 2 1

    I know it’s not their only outgoing – but it’d be a significant one. Landfill fees, along with wages and cost of running the trucks would be their main costs of doing business. And one of these has increased by 30%. Complain all you want – a private company is entitled to make a profit – if they listened to the moaners on here, they’d be out of business and all of their employees on the dole. That’d be a great alternative, eh?

  • Tim Jackson 01/07/12 #

    Report this comment 0 1

    Herbert,

    “a private company is entitled to make a profit”.
    Not on my back. If you want to pay more, by all means! BUT, people overall will decide. Nobody cares if they go “out of business” – it’s not the customers fault. There are many alternatives such as fly-tipping or backyard burning. TBH, it wouldn’t surprise me if Greyhound actually do go bust within the next two years. Being on the dole is an entitlement which every citizen is entitled to under the Irish constitution.

• Ailís McKernan 01/07/12 #

  Report this comment 23 17

  Amazing, another charge being passed on to people who can ill afford it.

  Reply

  • G. Smith 01/07/12 #

    Report this comment 20 34

    Can’t afford to to pay the bin charge, but can still afford to fill it with packaging from the stuff they buy! Sure there are some who can barely afford to feed themselves but there’s a lot of people who claim they can’t afford another few euro but happy to fly-tip their rubbish or audacity to moan whilst they buy expensive (and heavily packaged) luxury goods.

  • Tim Jackson 01/07/12 #

    Report this comment 5 5

    Smith,

    Fly-tipping will increase because households are at breaking point and besides, why would anyone want to pay a greedy private company who only care about their lucrative profit margins?

• Con Ó Domhnaill 01/07/12 #

  Report this comment 21 10

  Don’t blame the Greyhound for this – blame the German Rottweiler

  Reply

  • Tim Jackson 01/07/12 #

    Report this comment 3 4

    Agreed.

• Damocles 01/07/12 #

  Report this comment 3 7

  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there’s a business opportunity in small scale anaerobic digestion.

  Reply

• Shane Griffin 01/07/12 #

  Report this comment 1 7

  @Paul Mallon, apologies for the misspelling of your surname in my last post… I understand your point and agree. They charge an annual flat rate for brown and green bin collections regardless of whether one puts either out at every collection day or twice a year. There should be an option when taking out the service.

  Reply

• Eileen McNamee 01/07/12 #

  Report this comment 10 4

  I do not use black bags so why do I have to pay the government levy

  Reply

  • Tim Jackson 01/07/12 #

    Report this comment 5 3

    Because they want to pay Bondholders.

• Gavin Yore 01/07/12 #

  Report this comment 5 31

  I see by the comments here that a lot of people are unhappy by these increases. If you guys knew what I have been witnessing over the past 2 years with my old employer you would blow a gasket. I worked for a company that installs the machines that sorts all your rubbish out. I’ve installed machines in Oxigen,Thorntons,Panda to name a few as well as waste companies in London,Bristol,Rugby and Manchester. nOnce your waste is collected, it’s brought to a recycling centre where it’s tipped into a machine called a trommel that grades it into different sizes. From there it is sent by a series of conveyors through magnets that pick out all the steel(forks,old batteries,screws,etc) then after that through Eddy current machines that takes out your non-ferrous metal(aluminum,tin,ie. Coke cans etc) then on to a Pellenc machine which separates paper from plastic. This would be a pretty basic system and there are some huge far more state of the art systems out there but still provides a huge profit for the companies because each stage provides a bi-product that is sold on, steel(ferrous and non-ferrous) to metal dealers. The paper is shredded and can be sold to reusable paper manufacturers or sold to power plants or cement works(Lagan) the plastics are sold to plastic recycling companies. nExample: Powerday in London handles 10% of Londons waste creates £36,000 from one magnet every 2 weeks. nLess than a third of your waste actually goes to landfill , the rest is all sold on at huge profit. So really, your paying them over the odds to make more money and when ya think about it there is no real point having a black bag and recycling bag when they have the machines to sort it out anyway. Just saying.

  Reply

• Graham Finlay 01/07/12 #

  Report this comment 5 9

  I can’t understand these charges. I live in a rural part of Galway Co. we buy bins bags and leave them out for collection, landfill €5, paper €2.50 & plastic €2.50, we get away with one of each every two weeks. It’s a good service and fair price I think, but If these costs can cover rural areas in galway how could it not work in a densely populated area in Dublin?

  Reply

  • Sean Herbert 01/07/12 #

    Report this comment 8 4

    You forgot to mention who collects them – private or Council? If its council, then they’re probably eating any losses – the same as they did in Dublin before outsourcing it.

• Graham Finlay 01/07/12 #

  Report this comment 2 5

  True Sean sorry, they are a private outfit, not aware of any councils operating rubbish collection in the more rural areas, or doing much at all tbh.

  Reply

• Tim Jackson 01/07/12 #

  Report this comment 6 4

  You will likely see an increase in street dumping as a result. Nobody can carry inflated bin charges from a greedy private company.

  Reply

  • Sean Herbert 01/07/12 #

    Report this comment 3 6

    The guy above you agrees, Tim. You seem very smart.

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