Now households will pay for recycling bin collections
HOUSEHOLDS are now facing bills for collection of their green bins for the first time.
One of the biggest waste collection companies in the country is bringing in charges for its customers next month.
Waste operator Panda is to introduce charges for around 250,000 customers from April.
Panda says it would be “surprised” if other companies did not follow suit and also introduce charges.
The new rates in parts of Dublin will see domestic customers charged 80 cent per lift of the green bin and 4.5 cent per kilogram to collect, process and transport the recyclables.
The waste management company will roll out the new charges in Dublin first, before expanding elsewhere. It expects the average cost of the green bin service for households to be €21 annually. The new rates will apply first in Fingal and Dún Laoghaire.
The move comes less than two years after the Government scrapped controversial plans to introduce a minimum charge for green recycling bins. But it is expected that the move by such a major player as Panda will mean that other operators quickly follow suit, with global pressures also at play.
Recyclable waste has previously been processed free of charge in Ireland – but CEO of Panda Des Crinion has said a collapse in global waste import markets has forced their hand in relation to fees.
China was the world’s biggest processor of recyclable waste, but recently closed its doors to importing waste from abroad. Around 95pc of Ireland’s plastic waste and the vast majority of waste paper was shipped to China in 2016.
“With China closed to global companies, the cost of recycling worldwide has escalated dramatically as more companies worldwide jostle for access to reduced outlets in the rest of the world,” he said.
HOUSEHOLDS are facing bills for the collection of their green bins for the first time.
One of the biggest waste collection companies in the country is bringing in charges for its customers next month.
Waste operator Panda is to introduce charges for around 250,000 customers from April. Panda said it would be “surprised” if other companies did not follow suit and also introduce charges.
The new rates in Dublin and the surrounding counties will see domestic customers charged 80c per lift of the green bin and 4.5c per kg to collect, process and transport the recyclables.
The waste management company will roll out the new charges in Dublin first, before expanding elsewhere.
It expects the average cost of the green bin service for households to be €21 annually. The new rates will apply first in Fingal and Dún Laoghaire.
The move comes less than two years after the Government scrapped controversial plans to introduce a minimum charge for green recycling bins.
But it is expected that the move by such a major player as Panda will mean that other operators quickly follow suit, with global pressures also at play.
Recyclable waste has previously been processed free of charge in Ireland – but CEO of Panda Des Crinion has said a collapse in global waste import markets has forced their hand in relation to fees.
China was the world’s biggest processor of recyclable waste, but recently closed its doors to importing waste from abroad.
Around 95pc of Ireland’s plastic waste and the vast majority of waste paper was shipped to China in 2016.
“With China closed to global companies, the cost of recycling worldwide has escalated dramatically as more companies worldwide jostle for access to reduced outlets in the rest of the world,” he said.
“We have absorbed these increased costs for as long as is possible but it is not sustainable to continue to do so.”
Mr Crinion said efforts to source cost-effective alternatives around the globe have not been successful.
The company plans to open the country’s first plastic processing plant, with hopes to eventually produce refuse sacks or bags for life.
“We’re looking after our own problems here, which is the right thing to do,” he said.
Mr Crinion said the company had “thought long and hard” about the introduction of fees and he said it was important to him that the operator was “upfront” in the hope of increasing awareness over the correct items to bin in the green bin.
‘We’ve absorbed increased costs for as long as possible’