Wicklow waste company to charge €22 per bin lift

Refuse charges of up to €22 per bin lift have been notified to clients of private waste company Greenstar, which operates largely in Co Wicklow.

The figure is more than four times that being charged by South Dublin and Fingal county councils.

The company has written to householders identifying "price bands" which will apply for its pay-by-use-system currently being introduced.

Greenstar offers customers a number of different price bands between €264 and €449 a year.

The lowest of these offers up to 12 lifts of the 240 litre waste bins per year, a price which works out at €22 per bin lift.

Greenstar said the per lift basis was not a fair way to view the charges. A spokeswoman said the charges had not been prepared purely on a per lift basis, but included a service charge. All price bands offer up to 12 lifts of a green recycling bin at no extra cost, but the company said its charges were based solely on the waste bins.

Greenstar's highest charge for 2005 is €449 for 45 lifts of the normal refuse bin. That works out at just under €10 per lift. Then lifts of the green bin are included at no extra charge according to the company.

To achieve the €264, lowest price available this year, customers would need to reduce the number of times they put the bin out from once a week as was available last year, to once a month in 2005.

Greenstar has already billed its customers €392 for 2005 and has reserved the right to send supplementary bills or make refunds/credit notes at the end of the year, based on customer usage.

At €392 a customer is entitled to up to 36 waste bin lifts a year and 12 lifts of recycling bins.

The figures compare badly with South Dublin County Council where the cost of lifting a similar size bin is just €6 per bin regardless of the number of bins. Fingal County Council also in Dublin charges €6 per lift, again regardless of the number of lifts. However, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has a complex system with a per kilo charge of 20 cent per kilo, a standing charge of €80 and a per-lift charge of €4.

Dublin City Council charges €5 per lift and also imposes a standing charge of €80.