Greyhound and Panda set to increase bin charges

The waste collection company says it is imposing the price increases as a result of its rising costs

Greyhound Recycling has written to customers outlining details of a €3 monthly increase in its charges from the beginning of July. Photograph: Bryan O'Brien
Greyhound Recycling has written to customers outlining details of a €3 monthly increase in its charges from the beginning of July. Photograph: Bryan O'Brien

One of the largest waste collection companies in the State has written to customers outlining details of a €3 monthly increase in its charges from the beginning of July.

Greyhound Recycling, which has over 100,000 customers in the Dublin area, said it was imposing the price increases as a result of rising costs facing its operation.

It was quickly followed by a price increase announcement late Thursday by Panda Waste.

In an email sent to customers this week it blamed “factors beyond our control”, and said that its “costs to collect and process your waste continue to rise”.

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As a result one customer was told there would be an “an additional €2.99 per month added to your monthly charge”. She noted that in June of last year she was paying €22 a month to have her bins collected by Greyhound Recycling and from July expects to be paying €30. “That is an increase of over 30 per cent in just a year which looks very high to me,” she said.

Another customer who said she had the waste management company’s smaller bins contacted this newspaper to say she was being hit with a monthly increase of €1 for her brown, green and black bins. She told The Irish Times that it was the second time the company had increased its prices since the start of the year.

Attempts by The Irish Times to contact Greyhound Recycling were unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, another waste management company, Panda Waste, started mailing customers on Thursday evening outlining a new charging structure that will see the quarterly charges climb from just over €75 to €83.

When spread over the course of a year, the higher charge would amount to an increase in refuse charges of more than €30.

The price hike comes weeks after Panda Waste introduced a new charge for removing compostable materials, including certain food and garden waste, on some of its customers. The charge of €3.80 per bin was introduced for many of Panda’s 350,000 customers from May 8th, with its impact depending on how frequently so called brown bins were put out for collection.

Last year the same company also rolled out increases of more than 10 per cent.

Conor Pope

Conor Pope

Conor Pope is Consumer Affairs Correspondent, Pricewatch Editor