Wheelie Bin Pay-by-weight discussion thread

allthedoyles

smjm wrote: »

Have you no room for a compost heap for the grass and leaves? Not criticising, just wondering.

Nope - don't have room .
Some years ago Wastepal used to take grass and leaves in compost bin , but then they changed it to a food waste bin only .

I know , I need to set up a proper composting bin to reduce waste weight

smjm

2RockMountain wrote: »

I can see the point of a service charge, in that the provider has to put trucks and staff on the road, regardless of whether your bin is out or not.

In a competitive market, with multiple collectors per area, they all have to put trucks and staff on the road. But, by definition, they only get a certain percentage of customers. So a flat service charge shouldn't really be allowed - only a per-lift and/or per-weight charge.

That's my opinion anyway!

smjm

allthedoyles wrote: »

I know , I need to set up a proper composting bin to reduce waste weight

If you do, it's good for the environment, good for your pocket, and bad for the bin company's profits. That's a win/win/win situation in my eyes!

duffman3833

smjm wrote: »

If you do, it's good for the environment, good for your pocket, and bad for the bin company's profits. That's a win/win/win situation in my eyes!

the only concern i have is it may attract unwanted wildlife

smjm

duffman3833 wrote: »

the only concern i have is it may attract unwanted wildlife

You can have sealed compost bins as opposed to an open compost heap. Just as safe as an ordinary wheelie bin.

foggy_lad

2RockMountain wrote: »

Thanks for clarification. I can see the point of a service charge, in that the provider has to put trucks and staff on the road, regardless of whether your bin is out or not. Unless we were to move to some kind of booking system?

But they only travel past your address on day a week, it is not like they are driving past every day on the off chance that your bin was full. That is just their cost of doing business.

Poochie05

Big Bag of Chips wrote: »

"Unfortunately we do not provide a composting service in your area.

Please be advised compost bins is separate to PBW regulation and will be rolled out to the areas that we are legally obliged to roll them out to. Currently for population centres of 1500 or more persons, we are required to have a compost service available."

That's the email I got from Greenstar at 17:00 this evening.

While it is separate legislation, from the 1st of July this year they are legally obliged to roll them out, as they put it, to population centres greater than 500 people so unless you are in a very remote area they will have to provide you with one next week
http://www.environ.ie/environment/waste/food-waste/biofood-waste

allthedoyles

smjm wrote: »

If you do, it's good for the environment, good for your pocket, and bad for the bin company's profits. That's a win/win/win situation in my eyes!

With composting there's no point in dumping 5 buckets of grass and 3 buckets of leaves into a composting bin.

All materials have to be layered and mixed for it to work properly .

Many many householders will not be prepared to do the right thing though .

loyatemu

allthedoyles wrote: »

With composting there's no point in dumping 5 buckets of grass and 3 buckets of leaves into a composting bin.

All materials have to be layered and mixed for it to work properly .

Many many householders will not be prepared to do the right thing though .

you also need some use for the finished compost, which if you have no garden is tricky.

for comparison we have 6 people in the house, and our black bin is less than 50kg per month, and that includes any compostable waste as we don't currently have a brown bin (I do compost my grass clippings though).

duffman3833

duffman3833 wrote: »

the only concern i have is it may attract unwanted wildlife

I have 2 plastic composting bins and no bother with vermin. I think I bought them from Woodies some years ago. I fill one a year and leave it mature for a year while filling the other. It goes on my veg patch or flower bed when ready. IIRC, I paid about €25 each bin.

foggy_lad

Deleted User wrote: »

I have 2 plastic composting bins and no bother with vermin. I think I bought them from Woodies some years ago. I fill one a year and leave it mature for a year while filling the other. It goes on my veg patch or flower bed when ready. IIRC, I paid about €25 each bin.

Good for you!

Many many others don't have a garden or are actually prohibited by their management leases from placing composting bins in their yards/gardens due to the issue of vermin and the smells that are sometimes caused.

foggy_lad

foggy_lad wrote: »

Good for you!

Many many others don't have a garden or are actually prohibited by their management leases from placing composting bins in their yards/gardens due to the issue of vermin and the smells that are sometimes caused.

My post was a reply to a poster who was concerned about attracting wildlife to his/her property by having a compost bin. My aim was to allay their fears.

What was yours about?

forourke

A standing charge is the enemy of conservation because conservation is about maximising the marginal gain for the efforts you make.

With waste and the new pricing with Greenstar it's completely nuts.
My household aggressively recycles and composts to the point that we put out one small bin 4-5 times a year at a cost of about €35pa + the standing charge of €60pa. The new system makes it practically pointless for us to recycle as the marginal cost of additional packaging waste is now a tiny fraction of the whole cost. Why would we bother anymore?
I don't actually object to companies charging for waste but to put in a system that heavily penalises those who have been recycling and then saying the purpose is to PROMOTE recycling is unacceptable.

MrMorooka

I just had a great realisation. I had a look at the list of where bag collection is still happening, and realised there a couple of streets less than a minute from me that will still have collection. So I'm just going to continue putting out bags(and avoid the ridiculous standing charge and hassle of having bins in a rented house), I'll just carry them over there.

Might be handy for other people too, so have a look. The criteria is basically "does the street have front gardens", so you might know a terraced street or mews lane near you.

vickers209

Awd are offering a pay by weight option with no service charge but its a ridiculous price of 65c per kilo of waste and 35c for recycling

http://www.awdgroup.ie/app/index.php?task=product&cat_type_id=4

2RockMountain

MrMorooka wrote: »

I just had a great realisation. I had a look at the list of where bag collection is still happening, and realised there a couple of streets less than a minute from me that will still have collection. So I'm just going to continue putting out bags(and avoid the ridiculous standing charge and hassle of having bins in a rented house), I'll just carry them over there.

Might be handy for other people too, so have a look. The criteria is basically "does the street have front gardens", so you might know a terraced street or mews lane near you.

I'd be surprised it this approach was legal under the current legislation.

allthedoyles

Pay By Weight Info Page
Thursday, 30th June - 14:38

Customer calls into us have reported that on RTE's Liveline it was stated that all waste operators are putting up their prices tomorrow. Let us clarify:

There will be no change to our pricing tomorrow!

What is happening is that to be compliant with Govt regulations, as they stand today (but we are waiting on amended regulations from the Govt this evening), bag customers have to move off bags and onto a bin service unless they are exempted by the local council. There is a deadline of tomorrow for this but in reality there will be a transitioning period. We recommend bag customers move to our Pay As You Go card option which allows you to be in control of your costs and spend at all times.

Why is there a service charge on this card? This is to cover the following:

-

• Providing three bins, general waste, recycling & compost.
  
• - Driving past your house 52 weeks of the year, regardless of whether you put your bin out or not.
  
• - Installing and maintaining the equipment on every truck to weigh each of the bins accurately to Weights & Measures standards.
  
• - Reporting through our website the date, time & weight of each and every one of your bin lifts.
  
• - We are required to do all of the above by Government regulations and can lose our collection permit if we do not.

Above is an update from www.greenstar.ie website

Big Wex fan

The can has stopped been kicked down the road for pay be weight.
Below are the charges been introduced by Ray Whelan.
We don't have a brown bin option so food & other waste will be in our rubbish bin.

Can I ask from folks who are already doing the pay by weight what the typical weight of a 240 bin is for a family of 5?
The allowance is average just under 33kg per fortnight which sounds very light to me.


Ray Wheelan charges from 1st Oct.

STANDARD SERVICE

Ideal for customers who leave their bins out on a regular basis:

• Annual service charge is €288.00 (can be paid in monthly instalments of €24.00 in advance)

• Waste bin weight allowance 850kg per year

• (over 850kg charges will be 10c per kg for waste only)

• No extra charge for recycling and compost (where available)

Your account MUST be in credit by the 1st of each month to ensure collections

ALL CUSTOMERS WILL AUTOMATICALLY BE CHANGED TO THIS OPTION.

If you are happy with this option you do not need to contact our office.

PAY BY WEIGHT

For customers who recycle more and produce less general waste

• Annual service charge of €120.00 (can be paid quarterly at €30 per quarter in advance)

• Waste 30c per kg

• Compost 20c per kg (where available)

If you wish to choose this option, please contact our office

PAY BY LIFT

For customers who occasionally leave out their bins

• Annual service charge of €150.00 (can be paid quarterly at €37.50 per quarter in advance)

• Waste €8.00 per lift up to 30kg (Excess weight charged at 12c per kg)

• Recycling €2.00 per lift

• Compost (where available) €6.00 per lift (must be emptied fortnightly or the contents are no longer compostable)

allthedoyles

This photo is our weights for last month . We are with Greenstar , who I believe is run by Panda .
We pay around €30 a month and are allowed 75kgs monthly. Any waste in excess will cost 17c per kg .
We use the app which means its completly paperless , otherwise its €1.50 per invoice .
We have a food waste bin separate . Only waste is charged for.

guil

That's bonkers with ray Whelan about the compost bin. They say it has to be our every collection so over the year the service charge and compost bin charge is €306. That's before ya get the waste or recycling bin emptied once.

Big Wex fan

Looks like they're stearing people to option one. It does look like the cheapest option if you have regular waste. It will encourage me to recycle properly. But definitely going to cost more overall. We don't have a brown bin so that organic waste eating into our bin allowance is a worry. I hope it doesn't lead to an increase of illegal dumping. I'm in a rural location and we had a phantom dumper on the road for years, only stopped about 18 months ago.

Wanderer78

Big Wex fan wrote:

Looks like they're stearing people to option one. It does look like the cheapest option if you have regular waste. It will encourage me to recycle properly. But definitely going to cost more overall. We don't have a brown bin so that organic waste eating into our bin allowance is a worry. I hope it doesn't lead to an increase of illegal dumping. I'm in a rural location and we had a phantom dumper on the road for years, only stopped about 18 months ago.

Unfortunately the over emphasis of the end user under the polluter pays principal , is and will continue to be, a major reason why there's an increase in illegal methods of waste management including illegal dumping and burning

CH3OH

I just checked back over my weights

Don't know what they thought I had in the bin on the 11th June 148.5 Kg

Maybe I got the coal bunker mixed up with the bin and put 4 bags of coal in the bin.
But I don't think I would have been able to pull the bin out!


How would one dispute this ?
I'm sure they would just say the weighing equipment is checked.

Big Wex fan

Could someone of put their rubbish in your bin? Might account for the huge extra weight.

CH3OH

Big Wex fan wrote: »

Could someone of put their rubbish in your bin? Might account for the huge extra weight.

Not really as my bin is normally full and the most it has weighed is about 40 Kg

Steve

Is it possible the lid was open and it filled up with water or something?

Normal wheelie bin is 240l, and if full of water would weigh 240 kg. No way you'd be able to wheel it it though.

Max mine has been this year is 26 kg and even that feels heavy to wheel out. (I only put it out when absolutely full).

Wanderer78

Steve wrote:

Max mine has been this year is 26 kg and even that feels heavy to wheel out. (I only put it out when absolutely full).

I put out a brown bin that was nearly 100kg before, was barely able to move it

daheff

this whole idea of pay by weight is nuts. the idea is to reduce waste. All this will do is encourage lighter packaging.... which in our windy country would blow around the countryside.

and more illegal dumping/fly tipping of heavy waste.

we need to encourage recyclable/compostable packaging instead. we should be imposing tax on the manufacturers who use non recyclable packaging.

Wanderer78

daheff wrote:

we need to encourage recyclable/compostable packaging instead. we should be imposing tax on the manufacturers who use non recyclable packaging.

This approach is a no brainer now, but that would be seen by some as 'interfering with the market'!

daheff

Wanderer78 wrote: »

This approach is a no brainer now, but that would be seen by some as 'interfering with the market'!

and pay by weight isnt?

Any action you take to change how the market works is interfering.