Hike in refuse charges in Dublin

piuswal

New charges in Dublin
So, the Government Opposition get the minimum green bin charges reduced to zero.

At least 2 of the city companies have announced that they are not charging for green bin collections but have restructured their charging system.

I find that my current service provider has restructured its charges such that my costs are c 50% higher when compared to 2015, based on same usage.

I do not have the previous costings for the other company but do know that their current prices come in c 15% lower; no brainer as regards switching.

What are other peoples experiences?

When will hear from FF etc on this situation?

BonkeyDonker

piuswal wrote: »

New charges in Dublin
So, the Government Opposition get the minimum green bin charges reduced to zero.

At least 2 of the city companies have announced that they are not charging for green bin collections but have restructured their charging system.

I find that my current service provider has restructured its charges such that my costs are c 50% higher when compared to 2015, based on same usage.

I do not have the previous costings for the other company but do know that their current prices come in c 15% lower; no brainer as regards switching.

What are other peoples experiences?

When will hear from FF etc on this situation?

Why are people surprised - the bin companies are not charities and need to re-coup their costs somehow. So while politicians can claim a moral victory financially you are still paying for your green bin.

piuswal

It is not the charges hike that surprises me, rather the complete lack of any public/users comment.

Gumbo

People screamed for public service cuts during the last 8ish years. They said cut the wasters, cushy jobs etc etc your local chatty bin man is gone now and the private companies need to scrap up as much as possible in the quickest time possible. In some cases the driver is alone and he himself has to stop and pick the bins.

Let the private sector do it cheaper they said, well, here is the outcome. Increased charges and they won't slow down either.

Bray Head

Refuse charges are double (net) what water charges are for me - also completely privatised! Amazing how little public comment there is.

The charges are very high particularly if you have children in nappies which are very difficult to compost.

I haven't done the sums but getting a sink waste disposal unit probably makes sense especially if your water is not metered. Not for nappies obviously.

alexonhisown

Cant believe how quiet everyone is over this, mine will increase by approx 50%, im glad i am past having kids stage, dont know how people with a few kids can afford waste disposal

marno21

MOD: Moved to new Recycling & Domestic Waste Disposal forum.

Zaph

Based on figures for Panda that were posted on the D15 forum our charges (2 adults) will go up by 32% assuming the exact same frequency and weights as last year. As soon as I get some definite confirmation of those charges from Panda I will be e-mailing all my local TDs and councillors to see what they're doing about 1) the clear price gouging that is being engaged in by waste disposal companies. Minimum rates were set, but no maximum rates, and the companies have viewed this like a lottery win. people are complaining about the size of increases in their motor insurance, but this isn't much better and nobody is saying a word; and 2) the complete lack of competition in my area. Panda are the only company covering where I live, and while the service has been good over the years, they have a monopoly and now an opportunity to charge whatever they like.

piuswal

Greyhound sent out its new charging structure some weeks ago and moved me to a weekly lift charge even though I have always paid the standing charge annually heretofore.

Using last year as a direct comparison I found that with a weekly charge my costs increased by 52% but if I paid annually the increase is 35%.

We also have City Bin as an alternative and their new charges would mean an increase of 32% for me.

I got a number of replies from Greyhound including;

"Thank you for contacting Greyhound.

I can appreciate all of your concerns you have voiced.

We are aware of what two companies are offering with the new legislation.

Thorntons are charging customers €50 to sign up and €40 for delivery of bins on top of your service fees.

City Bin only have Direct Debit as payment method, which you will be charged bank fees on and if there is a failed transaction you will be charged bank fees again.

Whereas with us, yes I do agree the pricing has increased along with every other company but with our payment methods we have cash payments using the Greyhound top up card or you can link your VISA or MasterCard to your account, where you wont receive any failed transaction fee charges.

At the end of the day, it is completely up to you who you choose".


So I have decided to stay as is for the moment but pay the annual lift charge.

I'm not opposed to paying but my main complaint is with the charade the "opposition" went through in Dail recently when forcing the withdrawal of a minimum charge for the green bin, but no reference to the fact that the consequence of that is an even greater increase in black and brown bin charges.

Given that there will br no green bin charge, at least by the companies operating in GDA I suspect that they will have a major issue with green bins being stuffed with unsuitable material. They will be monitoring I'm sure but it should lead to some interesting disputes when they try and take issue with some householders.


a

Delta2113

"Thorntons are charging customers €50 to sign up and €40 for delivery of bins on top of your service fees."

Is this correct? I heard about the €40 but €50 as well?

Dayo93

Delta2113 wrote: »

"Thorntons are charging customers €50 to sign up and €40 for delivery of bins on top of your service fees."

Is this correct? I heard about the €40 but €50 as well?

Thorntons now have a 2 euro a week standing charge and pay bay weight for black and brown bin. Standing charge is now 104 euro a year vrs 50 , and as far as i can work out my brown bin is going from 4.90 to approx 15 euro a lift . HAPPY DAYS=====A prime example why water charges are gonna end up unafforadable

Was Alan Kelly the Great lad that agreed to this ??

cerastes

Dayo93 wrote: »

Thorntons now have a 2 euro a week standing charge and pay bay weight for black and brown bin. Standing charge is now 104 euro a year vrs 50 , and as far as i can work out my brown bin is going from 4.90 to approx 15 euro a lift . HAPPY DAYS=====A prime example why water charges are gonna end up unafforadable

Was Alan Kelly the Great lad that agreed to this ??

Im with throntons,
Up till now, Ive found the service cost effective, 2 days ago I received a letter in the post, this scrapped the annual €50 charge and went directly to €2/week, immediately doubling my annual charge.
Prior to that, they didnt even have an annual charge, I can see they are recouping their costs, but steadily over time the costs are increasing.
Up till now Ive been managing my waste, putting out bins minimally.
With this new system, I am not encouraged to put less bins out, just less weight, so I'll still get charged but I have to further reduce my output somehow.
This is the main reason I opposed Irish Water, because there is no end to where the charges might go. In the case of bins, there is no matter of actually managing and trying to reduce what you put to your non recycled binbs as the cost will still increase.

I suspect people dont complain as they have it up to their eyes with bills and other things to do and knowwell it will make no headway or dont know who to contact.
Id be suspicious that any councillors would even see any complaint or bother to read or reply.

The thing is, many will simply close their bin accounts and start fly tipping, its already a problem I noticed having a year on year increase.

spurious

For those in Dublin on some of the streets exempt from wheelie bins and still allowed use bags, ecoway.ie are 2.50 a bag for household waste.

Dr_Colossus

spurious wrote: »

For those in Dublin on some of the streets exempt from wheelie bins and still allowed use bags, ecoway.ie are 2.50 a bag for household waste.

That's very good, no standing charge so you only pay for what you dispose of at a very reasonable fee. A bin bag will take a lot of refuse if properly packed and compacted.
http://ecoway.ie/services/bag-intro/domestic-bag/
Any preventative measures preventing households outside of these areas buying the bags and disposing of the refuse in the designated area for collection?

MrMorooka

It's stupid, the massive increases in this charge, which every household has to pay, essentially wipes out any money you might have gained from tax changes in the last budget. I hate to stay stealth tax.,. but it's a stealth tax.

As per usual, those of us who follow the law will get shafted, while the cute hoors who illegally dump/burn their rubbish will carry on as normal, no bother to them.

LynnGrace

MrMorooka wrote: »

It's stupid, the massive increases in this charge, which every household has to pay, essentially wipes out any money you might have gained from tax changes in the last budget. I hate to stay stealth tax.,. but it's a stealth tax.

As per usual, those of us who follow the law will get shafted, while the cute hoors who illegally dump/burn their rubbish will carry on as normal, no bother to them.

Exactly.

At a local shopping centre, what are supposed to be recycling banks are rubbish dumps. Literally, piles of black bags, television sets, pushchairs, you name it, it's dumped there. They are regularly cleared by the council, and the following day, another pile of rubbish is back.

We have just received notification from Citybin, and our annual charge will more than double, under their new charging structure. :mad:

dazberry

piuswal wrote: »

I'm not opposed to paying but my main complaint is with the charade the "opposition" went through in Dail recently when forcing the withdrawal of a minimum charge for the green bin, but no reference to the fact that the consequence of that is an even greater increase in black and brown bin charges.

If you think back to when Greyhound took over from DCC they offered 4 different bin collection options - the one with the most expensive service charge was the complete pay by weight option - something like €100 p/a vs €50 p/a at that time. I would suspect that whatever way the green bin issue was going to go - we were always going to see these huge hikes in service charges. It would suggest to me that Greyhounds (et al.) are protecting their revenues (and somewhat profiteering) - in a why that flies directly in the face of what the polluter pays principle is trying to achieve.

Having run my own numbers (over the first 5 months of this year) I pretty much break even on lift charges - the problem is the service charge. To stay in line with the existing pricing I need to reduce my waste by 21kg per month to also cover the increase in service charge. Problem is I only put out on average 15kg per month over that time. So since nothing else has changed - I can't view this as anything other than profiteering.

D.

cerastes

There is effectively no competition. The Govt has (maybe) by design or accident blundered into this, setting no clear rules or simply leaving it wide open for the refuse companies to do what they want.
Personally, I consider it is intentional, at worst intentional disregard.

Increasing the standing charges wipes out any saving or benefit for pay by weight. Pay by weight doesn't concern me that much, it's the standing charges and their increases. Other costs such as the cost to remove bins if you change service provider are exhorbitant, wiping out any potential to make savings and thus competition, encouraging fly tipping, which these companies know the council will have to pay for and hence us the taxpayer.
I agree with a People before profit (and I dont always) that bin services needs to be re-municiplaised, I think on a not for profit basis (not something the people before profit representative said) but enough to cover costs or with any benefit reinvested in waste management. All the services being reincorporated into the councils remit as it was in the past.
The council should administer, manage and audit it, any companies involved should simply be employment organisations where the work should be contracted out so the council doesnt have to hire the staff on as there is simply no need to have the council hire a glut of extra staff.