DUBLIN CITY Council’s household bin collection service is coming under increasing pressure from private operators with a 100 per cent increase in households switching to private collectors in recent months.
The city council has determinedly maintained its domestic bin-collection service while almost all other local authorities have left the market.
From the end of this year the city council will be the only local authority in the greater Dublin region still collecting bins following the recent decisions of Kildare and Fingal county councils to fully privatise their service.
Private operators began collecting waste in the city council’s operational area about three years ago but made little progress in securing council customers, with just 1,600 households having switched to a private providers by last March. However, a spokesman for the council said that figure had since doubled, with some 3,200 former council customers now having defected to the private sector.
Panda Waste, which runs about half of the private waste collections in the city, said it had been focusing on building business in Fingal and Dún Laoghaire, but would soon direct more attention towards the city’s market.
“More Dublin City Council business will be coming on line – the council is heading out of the market. We’re there on just a small scale at the moment, but we will be growing that business in the near future,” Panda general manager Brian McCabe said.
The city council is losing about €10 million every year collecting bins. Siptu, the union representing bin men, said the council had begun talks on the future of the service, which it told the union it could no longer afford to subsidise.
The council said it was not in a position to comment on the talks.
