Get ready for a 10% hike in your bin bills
Minister says severe rises will not be tolerated
BIN charges are set to increase by up to 10% – regardless of when the abolition of flat-rate bin charges takes full effect, waste industry sources predicted last night.
This could mean an average increase of about €30-a-year per household, with a €5 difference either way depending on whether you live in Dublin or the west of Ireland.
Waste collection firms were warned yesterday that any severe hike in their charges could result in swift Government intervention. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has said that if Environment Minister Denis Naughten sees pricing plans being implemented that he is unhappy with, he will consider ‘other options’.
However, earlier this week Minister Naughten said on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that it was ‘up to [the bin companies] as to what they charge’.
He also said: ‘I cannot force them to abide by anything.’
Industry sources say the rise will be more to do with an increase in base costs over the past year than anything else: ‘Depending on which waste companies decided to pass base cost rises on to customers, it will affect a proportion of the country’s 1.2million household customers, regardless of whether they are on fixed-rate charges or not.’
Increased costs include a rise in both diesel and labour costs over the past year, and a 4% rise in the cost per-tonne of dumping rubbish in landfill. The value of paper and plastic recyclables has decreased.
The source said: ‘Despite people’s fears, the market cannot sustain too high a rise. But charges will have to rise because the cost of doing business has risen.
‘I would be very surprised to see the rise in charges going beyond 10% and in most cases, it is likely to be between six and nine per cent,’ the source added.
Flat rate charging was due to end from July 1 for the 600,000 customers still on it, but the Government yesterday announced it will not now end until September. And it has said that in the meantime, the fixed-price ban will be reviewed by the National Waste Collection Permit Office.
Then the country’s 67 or so waste companies will have a period of time to make the necessary administrative changes they need to make to their payment systems, and consult with their customers.
So it is likely to be another two months or so before the country’s 600,000 fixed-price customers learn how much more – or less – they will be paying under the new pay-by-lift or pay-by-weight.
At the moment, the average house produces around one tonne of waste – with 600 kilos of black bag waste, and about 200 kilos each in green/ blue bin recyclable waste and brown bin food waste.
Bin charges range from around €250 to €350, depending on where you are in the country, with Dublin having among the cheapest rates.
This is because they are nearest the Poolbeg Incinerator and Dublin Port, from where waste is shipped to countries like Germany and Holland.
Much of the fear around bin charges as a whole has been sparked by the Government’s claimed inability to cap charges.
But while all eyes are now on the September expiry rate for fixed charges, the Mail understands there is nothing to stop waste companies ending the rates tomorrow.
‘Market cannot sustain too high a rise’