Greyhound to start charging 140,000 customers for green bins

Greyhound Recycling has become the latest waste operator to start charging households for “green bin” collections.

The move follows announcements last month from the company’s two main rivals, Panda and The City Bin Company, that they were introducing charges to households for collecting “dry” recycling.

Greyhound's 140,000 household customers, most of whom are based in Dublin, will be charged 15 cent per kg for recycling material. The charge will be introduced on a phased basis from the end of this month.

A spokesman for Greyhound said its charge would be the lowest of the three largest operators, working out at an average of €20 per year. Panda has said its green bin charge will amount to €21 per year, while The City Bin Company said its customers would face an additional fee of €22.80 per year.

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In a letter to customers Greyhound said the “ worldwide recycling industry has been greatly impacted by China’s decision to stop accepting and processing the material you place in your recycling bin”.

The main reason for this was due to “poor quality of material, people putting not just the wrong things in the recycling bin but also things like nappies and food that contaminate all other material in the bin and collection vehicles,” Greyhound said. Similar reasons were cited last month by Panda and City Bin.

‘Rubbish’

The Chinese government made a decision last summer that the material they previously considered recyclable could no longer be accepted. “After processing the good material they were left with significant amounts of rubbish that they needed to dispose of,” Greyhound said.

Since then significant investment had been made in the technology that processes and segregates material and attempts were made to develop new markets internationally for the waste, the company said. Communications programmes had also been pursued to inform customers what they could put in their green bins.

“Unfortunately, these measures do not cover the impact of the Chinese decision and with regret we must follow the actions the rest of the recycling industry in Dublin has already made by introducing a charge for recycling.”

The company spokesman said Greyhound had “held off as long as possible” and he added that any changes to the charge “would depend on the international situation”.

Last month Panda said charges for green bin collections would be frozen for five years. It is charging 80 cents per lift of recycling bins and 4.5 cents per kg of waste in these bins.

City Bin managing director Niall Killilea said the cost of disposing green bins was four times higher than it was a year ago.

“Until now, we have absorbed these costs in the hope that this trend would be reversed but there’s no end in sight.” The company has added €1.90 to its monthly service charge, saying it was continuing to provide a “free” green bin.

There has been a €100 per tonne drop in the price of unsorted scrap paper in recent months, with waste companies now paying up to €25 per tonne for its disposal.