A waste of time unless you’re a bin company
MANY years ago I switched refuse collectors, moving from a large company that frequently, and as if on a whim, left my bin uncollected and nowhere near my house, to a more dynamic outfit that was entering the Dublin market and was therefore eager to please. As anticipated, the old company didn’t make the transition easy. Communication was rubbish and it behaved like a spurned lover, steadfastly ignoring my emails but deluging me with calls about superior offers and reduced lift fees, while attempting to discredit its rivals.
In my haste to get shot, I left my account in credit, which in retrospect might have misled them about any reconciliation.
In the end I gratefully accepted the new company’s offer to hammer out the finer details of the separation. I filled out forms which they supplied, asking the old crowd to remove their bins from my property.
Over the years I followed the request up, but in vain. And still the unwanted bins stand empty in the back garden, just below the three bins now in use.
THANKFULLY, I’m not especially houseproud – if I was, then the eyesore of six bins standing shoulder to shoulder against the party wall would be a constant source of irritation. Three is bad enough, particularly for a small household, but six is a blight on the garden. Short of hiring a truck to bring them to the recycling centre at the Five Lamps, I’m stuck with them.
They are a visual reminder of the nasty side to waste collectors – well, of one outfit in particular – of their contempt for their customers and their profiteering.
If you ask me, they are ripe for regulation and for cutting down to size. Yet to my horror it seems that under the new bin charges regime these opportunists could get additional powers over their customers, including the authority to enter our private property.
Already some companies are exploiting the urgency around recycling and waste reduction by promising financial penalties for those who mistakenly put food waste into green bins or plastic wrapping into brown bins.
Even though the pay-by-weight rises have been postponed until September, Greyhound has already hiked its charges for some customers.
PANDA has texted customers about a new contract claiming the right to enter customers’ private property and fine them for ‘contaminating’ their bins. The fear is that environmental protection will become a charter for price-gouging and bullying by these waste ‘entrepreneurs’.
There is no evidence that fines or policing bins, methods which without a proper public information campaign smack of coercion, will increase compliance.
These high-handed tactics make no allowances for the elderly, who are often confused about the recycling rules and forgetful of collection days. The task has become so stressful that increasingly carers have to help.
Higher charges will increase illegal dumping.
Meanwhile, those who are already doing their bit for the environment will simply pay more for the service, while recyclers may see a small reduction.
The new bin charges regime may aim to help the environment but the biggest beneficiary will be the private bin companies.