Waste Collection options ? Celbridge

RayCon

Im currently with OZO - was paying €295 per (€24.50 per month) but just received this years Invoice and they put it up to €320 per year.

This would seem to make them the most expensive Waste Collection service in Celbridge.

The only other operators I can see are :

• AES are currently offering new customers 6 mtns for €134 (€268 per year)
• Thornton are offering a Flat Rate of €285 per year.

.. is that it ? Have I missed any other options ?



By the way, not interested in anything that involves having to buy tags.

The Mulk

Hi Ray,

We're in Oldtown Mill and we're with oxigen.
Roughly €18 a month we pay it every 3 months = €55 a payment.
There's different payment options e.g all upfront and it's a sticker they send out to stick on the bin with your expiry date on it, similar to thorntons.
Two bins collected every 2nd Monday at about 7am.
we're still in our first year though so getting an introductory price.
I might have to change to OZO next year:).

daheff

your getting robbed by ozo

i'm paying 18.33 a month to them

large blue bin, large orange bin (recycling) small brown bin (compost)


weekly collecting of blue bin, others fortnightly


i'm in celbridge too

RayCon

daheff wrote: »

your getting robbed by ozo

i'm paying 18.33 a month to them

large blue bin, large orange bin (recycling) small brown bin (compost)


weekly collecting of blue bin, others fortnightly


i'm in celbridge too

:eek: Woah - you serious ? Are your bins 240L ? Can I ask how long have you been with them ? Are you on an introductory offer ?

Buffman

I'm with thorntons pay per lift. No tags or anything like that, you get a card which you can top up at any Payzone, or online where you get a 5% discount.

http://www.thorntons-recycling.ie/domestic-kildare-sign-up

Joe Public

I'm also on pay per lift with Thorntons and it works out about €120 per year. You pay €50 standing charge and around €7 per lift. Payments are online and you must keep your account in credit. I don't use a brown bin as I have my own compost bin and only put out the black bin every month.

I hear in Dublin that some operators are charging per weight ( Ryan Air style ) on each lift and someone I know was charged €35 for their last bin lift, I hope they don't start this around these parts.

RayCon

Thorntons €50 upfront and €7.50 per lift is looking like the best option.

RayCon

Shame on me ... I never got around to changing provider (yet !!) ... I notice now that my Ozo direct debit this month is now a whopping €32.73 ... Ive emailed them twice , no response .. rang their office today - Accounts Dept only open Mon-Fri ... they never explained their increase from 295 (2011) to 320 (2012) .. now the seem to have increased by another 8% !!!

... anybody else having trouble with these ? Going to cancel on Mon

livEwirE

I was an OZO customer in 2011 - Charged €175 for the year.
OZO in 2012 jacked up the price to €220.

We switched to Thorntons for 2012 - €50 standing charge and €7.40 per black bin lift + €3.50 brown bin. MUCH better value.

Always felt when dealing with OZO that they were a bit of a joke, never answering the phone, bad customer service, I'm glad I moved. I get the impression that they have around 3 people working in their office and they couldn't cope:rolleyes:

Joe Public

One disadvantage with AES is they collect between 5am and 6am in Celbridge and are sure to wake people up as the trucks groan and whine and they bang the bins around the place just in case the truck doesn't wake you.

Beruthiel

Joe Public wrote: »

One disadvantage with AES is they collect between 5am and 6am in Celbridge

They don't arrive in my part of Castletown until much later.

Joe Public

Beruthiel wrote: »

They don't arrive in my part of Castletown until much later.

Good to know, I'll suggest to them that they start at the East side of Celbridge for the next year or three rather than the west side:)

L1011

Are AES just wilfully incompetent in Maynooth or does it apply to Celbridge too?

If its just Maynooth, go ahead; if not I'd avoid...

(4 months after changing and rather than the correct 4 bins I should have, I have 5 bins consisting of 3 types in different sizes. They also miss collections due to bins being the wrong colour...)

Beruthiel

Joe Public wrote: »

Good to know, I'll suggest to them that they start at the East side of Celbridge for the next year or three rather than the west side:)

You trapped me!

daheff

RayCon wrote: »

Shame on me ... I never got around to changing provider (yet !!) ... I notice now that my Ozo direct debit this month is now a whopping €32.73 ... Ive emailed them twice , no response .. rang their office today - Accounts Dept only open Mon-Fri ... they never explained their increase from 295 (2011) to 320 (2012) .. now the seem to have increased by another 8% !!!

... anybody else having trouble with these ? Going to cancel on Mon

Just got talking to Ozo today. they are a complete joke of a company.

Firstly, my estate had an introductory deal. It was abt 230 a year for 52 Blue bin lifts (any reasonable person would think 52 lifts = 1 a week??)

Well, my blue bin wasnt picked up this week so I rang to find out and to get prices for next year. I'm gobsmacked at the response (and rudeness) i received.

1- they apparently sent a letter to inform customers that they would only pick up every 2nd week (i never got the letter). Even though the contract is for 52 lifts, their (new) interpretation is that they would give me ANOTHER blue bin. 2 blue bins 26 weeks =52 lifts. Well yes and no. Up to now its been 1 a week. Any reasonable person would expect a 52 lift contract to mean 1 lift a week. Another point is the contract states 1 blue bin...not 2!

So they now expect me to have 2 blue bins, an Orange bin and a brown bin hanging around outside my house. Ridiculous.

2- next years cost is a whopping 440 Eur !!! Outrageously expensive.

And to top it all off...everytime i tried to say anything i had the ozo person talk over me.

I wont be doing business with them again.

Joe Public

Did anyone else in Celbridge not have their AES bin collected on Saturday in lieu of the B/H Monday ( normally collected on Mondays )?

Buffman

From talking to a couple of neighbours it looks like they didn't come to my area anyway.

mloc123

Joe Public wrote: »

One disadvantage with AES is they collect between 5am and 6am in Celbridge and are sure to wake people up as the trucks groan and whine and they bang the bins around the place just in case the truck doesn't wake you.

I hate AES. Every Monday morning at 5am they wake me.

Peppa Pig

I know this is an old thread but rather than start a new one,it may be applicable.

We have been with Thorntons for years and were very happy. Today I got an email giving their revised "pay per lift" charges from July 01 and it is a huge increase in cost.

For starters their service charge has gone to €104 pa instead of €50.
A 40 kg black waste bin goes from €9.90 per lift to €14 with the new pricing.

The brown compost bin is even worse. A 40kg brown bin goes from €4.90 per lift to €8.

I know we are throwing out too much but we have 2 green bins for recycling as we recycle so much.

Overall I estimate an increase of about 70%. Particularly galling is the doubling of the service charge, regardless of how much waste you have.

Has anyone else got revised pricing - Thornton's website seems to be the only one I can find with revised pricing.

L1011

Have you checked that your bins are actually that weight? The weights will be recorded in your account online. My black bin has never been close to 40KG and the heaviest, rammed to the top, brown was 29. Average weight of both is a fraction.

Peppa Pig

L1011 wrote: »

Have you checked that your bins are actually that weight? The weights will be recorded in your account online. My black bin has never been close to 40KG and the heaviest, rammed to the top, brown was 29. Average weight of both is a fraction.

Yeah - I checked it online and did a quick spreadsheet (we don't put the bins out each collection, probably why they can be so heavy). Pay by weight should be cheaper if you don't have heavy bins, but the sneaky service charge will put an end to that.
I estimated that an average 25kg bin will see an increase of 30%.

I rang Thornton's to make sure I wasn't completely reading it wrong, but the girl I spoke to just kept apologising and saying it was happening.
They are charging 35c per kilo for general waste and 20c per kilo for compost, 3 times what the recommendations were.

L1011

Those were minimums not recommendations - and assumed recycling charges. The other figures I've seen for Dublin are similar

Peppa Pig

L1011 wrote: »

Those were minimums not recommendations - and assumed recycling charges. The other figures I've seen for Dublin are similar

Any idea of service charges?

L1011

Greyhound were about a third dearer, can't find citybins

Lastblackdog

We have been using Mahons (now Panda) since we moved to Maynooth just over two years ago. It was what was here when we bought the house and, having just returned to Ireland and having to pay for bin collection (outside of council taxes) we decided to give it a while for us to gauge our usage before changing.

Up to now the prices from Panda (Tags and not an account) were: €12.00 for domestic waste and €4.00 for recycling.

Received a letter from them saying that they are changing from paper tags to an electronic tag on the bin itself. I have two options on how I pay a) prepay on-line at the same prices or b) give my credit card details and the fee will be deducted. The prices for direct debit are €11.20 for domestic waste and €3.80 for recycling. No mention as yet of a variable for weight.

This service has the advantage of not having an annual fee on top. We try to keep our waste disposal down (only two of us) and almost never need to put either bin out more than once per month and sometimes only every six weeks. My estimate is that we have spent less than €200 per year so far.

We don't have a garden was bin so this goes in the domestic bin. Without garden waste we might make it only every two months.

L1011

I don't know how legally they're able to keep a static charge as there is now a legal minimum per kg. I would check the fine print to see if its possibly that price "up to X kg".

Legally every operator has to offer brown bins now, although there'll be a charge for that too obviously.

Lastblackdog

L1011 wrote: »

I don't know how legally they're able to keep a static charge as there is now a legal minimum per kg. I would check the fine print to see if its possibly that price "up to X kg".

Legally every operator has to offer brown bins now, although there'll be a charge for that too obviously.

Good point. I thought that I heard something about the lift by weight was delayed - or did I misunderstand the point?

L1011

Lastblackdog wrote: »

Good point. I thought that I heard something about the lift by weight was delayed - or did I misunderstand the point?

It was delayed for a year from June 2015 - so its coming in now.

The other change was the original regulations had a minimum price per kg for green/recycling bins, however this is now gone; this was the more recent news.

From what I can see on the Consumer forums here the people who are going to be hit very heavily are parents with kids in nappies, snd people with medical needs for incontinence products, catheters etc. Most people otherwise will probably be paying a bit more. I'm coming out quite a lot lower but I sort everything and keep glass/textiles/batteries/electric products/anything else that can be dumped for free away for recycling centre visits also. Could cut it further if I home composted though!

WishUWereHere

I'm in Newbridge and use Thornton's also. Based on my last yearly cycle, it cost me €144.70, and I have absolutely no complaints with them.

However yesterday I got an email from them informing me of their new charges commencing July 1. Based on the info on my online accout lifting history, that €144.70 will be €232.25. And they state they want to encourage us to recyle and compose more??

Buffman

I did my sums for 2015 with Thorntons, €180 for pay per lift V €245 pay by weight. The overall price for lifts came within €5 on each system, it's the massive increase in the service charge which pushed it up for me. I guess I must be one of the unlucky few in the 4.5% that former minister Kelly said would be paying more.

Analysis using EPA and CSO data will show that 87% of households will see a reduction in their waste bills, 8.5% will see no change and a small number of households may see a higher bill

I'm not sure I have 100% faith in their weights, a number of my compost lifts are exactly 24.6233kg, which is suspicious and looks to me like some sort of default value they use. And one compost lift from this year was supposedly over 100kg:eek:! I think the wheels would fall off the little 140L bin if I ever got that much into it!

A quick question for people here before I call them on Tuesday, my €50 'Service period' is until September 2016 and I'm assuming they'll have to stand over that as it's already paid for. Does anybody know if that's the case, or will they refund/credit the unused months?

WishUWereHere

Hi Buffman

You asked about their service charge? The following I have extracted from the said email I recieved from them on Friday:

How do these changes affect me?

Pay As You Go customers:

From the 1st of July 2016 any unused portion of your previously paid annual service charge will be credited back to your Thorntons' account. This credit can be then carried forward to be used against any future bin lifts which will now be charged on a per kilo basis.

From 1st of July 2016 a weekly charge of €2.00 will be charged to your Thorntons' account, in addition to the per weight charge.

Yes, You are right about the 'service charge' being a BIG part of the increase ( I don't put my bins out every week & have a serious grievance with Thornton's over this over 100% increase ), but doing my calculations I also find those who use their brown bin are also being seriously punished for doing so. Personally, I wouldn't doubt the 100kg weight of the bin, as I had 2 lifts around the 90kg mark. One was for 90.5 kgs, and for the 'privelidge' of lift said bin, my charge has increased from €4.90 to a WHOPPING €18.10. I would also query this 24.6233 kg reading - I have looked back over my lifting history, and in my case, they only register ONE decimal point, IE, either 26kg, 26'5kg or 27kg.

Also in their email, Thornton's state the following:

To encourage your household to embrace the recycling initiative we have kept our service charge as low as possible and we have decided not to apply a charge to the recycling bin at this time.

I take serious umbrage with this statement as it was the government who decided to not charge for the green bin, NOTHING to do with Thornton's. I have also heard whispers ( ONLY whispers mind ) that there is a charge built into what they are charging for each lift of both the grey & brown bin to compensate for not charging for the green bin. Impossible to prove of course, but when AK47 is involved, ANYTHING was/is possible.

L1011

The government decided to remove compulsion to charge for green bins - they still can if they want

WishUWereHere

L1011 wrote: »

Have you checked that your bins are actually that weight? The weights will be recorded in your account online. My black bin has never been close to 40KG and the heaviest, rammed to the top, brown was 29. Average weight of both is a fraction.

Not doubting Your word L1011, but how the hell are You able to keep your brown bin weight so low? I only put my brown bin out when it's full, and have never once had it under 45 kgs, and the contents are only grass cuttings or food waste.

Buffman

WishUWereHere wrote: »

From the 1st of July 2016 any unused portion of your previously paid annual service charge will be credited back to your Thorntons' account.

Thanks for that.

WishUWereHere wrote: »

......I also find those who use their brown bin are also being seriously punished for doing so. Personally, I wouldn't doubt the 100kg weight of the bin, as I had 2 lifts around the 90kg mark. One was for 90.5 kgs, and for the 'privelidge' of lift said bin, my charge has increased from €4.90 to a WHOPPING €18.10. I would also query this 24.6233 kg reading - I have looked back over my lifting history, and in my case, they only register ONE decimal point, IE, either 26kg, 26'5kg or 27kg.

Ye, I'll be keeping a far closer eye on the weights from July on, previously like yourself, I only put out the bins when they were full, and wasn't overly concerned about weight on the pay per lift basis. I've also started composting in the last month which should take care of most of the garden waste.

WishUWereHere wrote: »

I have also heard whispers ( ONLY whispers mind ) that there is a charge built into what they are charging for each lift of both the grey & brown bin to compensate for not charging for the green bin. Impossible to prove of course, but when AK47 is involved, ANYTHING was/is possible.

Ye, I'd say a certain % of the charge is going to pay for the green bin, the operators certainly wouldn't be doing it for free and loosing money. Although with the service charge you're pretty much paying €2 per green lift based on the fortnightly cycle.

L1011

WishUWereHere wrote: »

Not doubting Your word L1011, but how the hell are You able to keep your brown bin weight so low? I only put my brown bin out when it's full, and have never once had it under 45 kgs, and the contents are only grass cuttings or food waste.

I put them out every time for smell reasons

donspeekinglesh

WishUWereHere wrote: »

Not doubting Your word L1011, but how the hell are You able to keep your brown bin weight so low? I only put my brown bin out when it's full, and have never once had it under 45 kgs, and the contents are only grass cuttings or food waste.

I only put grass cutting and food waste in mine - and it averages in the 20 to 30 kg range. only a few in the 40s.

Just added up the weights for the last 12 months, and we'd have saved €2.27 with the pay by weight...

WishUWereHere

OK, & how often would You put Your brown bin out? Last service year - february to february I put my brown bin out 8 times, with the least weight being 38kgs & the most being 90.5kgs.

On their old system ( current up to July 1) I would pay €39.20, but on the new charging regime, it would be €87,30. And yet Thornton's claim on their email that:

This legislation is designed to promote recycling and food composting in order to avoid waste.

Taking control of separating your waste will reduce your charges.

Who are they trying to kid? Tomorrow should be interesting when the working week re-starts.

donspeekinglesh

I'd put it out every collection during the grass cutting season, and maybe every 6/8 weeks over the winter.

L1011

Something else that I suspect has a (very slight) impact on the compost bin weights may be whether you put stuff in immediately or keep it in a caddy in the kitchen first. Doing the latter would dry out the waste a bit and it'll weigh less.

Don't have a huge amount of garden waste as currently I've no back lawn (bare earth) and the front one is tiny.

WishUWereHere

Well

Got an 'email recieved acknowledgement' from them this morning, but no reply.

Buffman

From what I'm reading over on the other threads in Consumer Issues and Bargain Alerts, Thorntons increases aren't as high as some of the other companies. Greyhound up to €3.25 a week service charge in Dublin!:eek:

Did anyone get anything from AES yet?

you2008

Buffman wrote: »

From what I'm reading over on the other threads in Consumer Issues and Bargain Alerts, Thorntons increases aren't as high as some of the other companies. Greyhound up to €3.25 a week service charge in Dublin!:eek:

Did anyone get anything from AES yet?[/QUOTE

there is price list for AES in maynooth bin post

Buffman

you2008 wrote: »

there is price list for AES in maynooth bin post

Thanks.

shoehorn wrote: »

From AES:

, The service charge is €90 for six months or €15 per month.

Waste bin = 25 cent per KG
Recycling bin = 0 cent per KG
Organic bin =Â 15 cent per KG
Glass Bin = 0 cent per KG

---

Not any cheaper sadly, because of 180 annual charge, unless your annual kg is very high.

Wow, €3.46 a week services charge with AES, albeit with a lower per kg cost, and a glass bin. As shoehorn says, you'd need to dump more to save anything with them.

Around my area at a glance I'd guess AES have less than 10% market share since OZO went to Thorntons, I wonder are AES looking to get out of the market altogether?

L1011

AESs phone customer service is either indifferent but cheerful or effective but downright abrasive - I would say that has repelled huge numbers of customers. My direct neighbours seem to be the only people on the street who still use them; down from probably 80% KCC (now AES) 20% Thorntons in the past.

Thorntons had a very bad rep in Maynooth over this: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/kildare-farmer-to-pay-10-000-for-playing-games-with-high-court-1.322543 etc - they are Padraig Thornton Waste Disposal Ltd - but AES being so bloody useless seemed to make that be forgotten!

I also paid for a service with a glass bin for nearly two years and never got the glass bin.

WishUWereHere

I have just done a cost analysis on AES based on my collections with Thornton's for the last payment year, and hate to say, AES are a LOT more expensive than Thornton's even with the new charges. I am basing my calculation for AES on the charges mentioned 2 posts ago:

Thornton's old price: €144.70
Thornton's new price: €232.25
AES charges $ 274.725

All these charges are based on the weights listed on my Thornton's account online.

Have emailed both Oxigen & Ray Whelan ( only 2 other options available here in my Estate ion Newbridge.

shoehorn

WishUWereHere wrote: »

I have just done a cost analysis on AES based on my collections with Thornton's for the last payment year, and hate to say, AES are a LOT more expensive than Thornton's even with the new charges. I am basing my calculation for AES on the charges mentioned 2 posts ago:

Thornton's old price: €144.70
Thornton's new price: €232.25
AES charges $ 274.725

All these charges are based on the weights listed on my Thornton's account online.

Have emailed both Oxigen & Ray Whelan ( only 2 other options available here in my Estate ion Newbridge.

Similar story here:
Thornton old: €164
Thornton new: €306 (+88%)
AES new: €327

Bottom line is, if you currently pay by lift with thorntons, and currently only put the bin out when full, you stand to pay a lot more under the new regime.
Panda due to publish prices in next couple of weeks I was told.

WishUWereHere

WishUWereHere wrote: »

I have just done a cost analysis on AES based on my collections with Thornton's for the last payment year, and hate to say, AES are a LOT more expensive than Thornton's even with the new charges. I am basing my calculation for AES on the charges mentioned 2 posts ago:

Thornton's old price: €144.70
Thornton's new price: €232.25
AES charges $ 274.725

All these charges are based on the weights listed on my Thornton's account online.

Have emailed both Oxigen & Ray Whelan ( only 2 other options available here in my Estate ion Newbridge.

Emailed both Oxigen and ray Whelan for their charges from July 1. Oxigen emailed me back within 24 hours saying they are still to publish their charges from July 1.

As for Ray Whelan? I emailed them on Thursday, and still waiting to hear anything from them. Won't be holding my breath there.

Joe Public

I've seen posts in Facebook from some people who have worked out what their charges will be under the pay by weight compared to the current pay by lift going by the records of what the weights of their lifts have been in the past year. Most have figured their waste bill will double from what it is now. I hope the government do a U turn on this one or tell the EU where to go.

Buffman

I got a letter from Thorntons, which as well as explaining the new charges, is trying to sign me up to a direct debit. (I use the pay per lift payzone card you top up.)

They must be worried they'll end up chasing people for money, as the weight of the waste is the full bin minus the empty bin, which can obviously only be calculated after the truck empties the bin. So with pay by weight, the truck won't know how much you owe until after it empties the bin, but you might not have had the credit to cover it.

With the pay per lift system, the truck automatically knew if you had enough credit for the lift before lifting, and wouldn't lift if you didn't. (Happened me once due to my own error.)

Not a hope in hell I'll be setting up a DD with them, as it leaves me wide open to massive bills I wouldn't know about until after they've taken the money out of the account, and the risk of being overdrawn.

Worst case scenario, say some a55hole decides to dump a load of rubble or something in my bin after I've put it out and left for work, (happened before, only found out as a neighbour saw it), you'll get way overcharged! Far safer to only have €20 in your bin account and be able to query charges with them rather than giving them free reign on your bank account.

Joe Public wrote: »

I hope the government do a U turn on this one or tell the EU where to go.

I wouldn't hold my breath, they'll still be getting their €75 per tonne landfill levy and extra VAT from the increased charges.

The only reason they backed down on the Green bin charges is that not even an Alan Kelly level of 'spin' could logically try to explain how recycling would be encouraged/increased if you charged for something which was previously 'free', and with him gone there was nobody arrogant enough to push it through, so they took the political path of least resistance. But even that's 'spin' because you're paying for the Green bin anyway through the service charges and the other bins.

Buffman

Just a quick reminder to those in Celbridge with Thorntons who would normally only put out the bin when it's full on the pay per lift (like myself), the last pay per lift of the brown is tomorrow 17th, and the last black pay per lift is the 30th.

Both of mine are pretty full so it'll be cheaper for me to have them emptied before July.

I see Thorntons website is advising people not to call due to busy phone lines, people must be doing their sums and coming to the same conclusions as us.

cgarvey

Just checking if any Thorntons pay per lift customers have/intend on switching? My own maths (as per weight/lift history) is inline with WishUWereHere/shoehorn above. Mine is about 2.5-3x more expensive now, but still less expensive than AES.

Current service charge gone from €50 to €104 (108%). Current per-KG charge (overage) gone from €0.20 to €0.35 (75%)