Greyhound watch… …and the most expensive plastic bag I’ll have to buy this year. December 8, 2012
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Economy, Irish Politics.trackback
Yep… it’s Greyhound Waste again, and their pre-Christmas surprise.
At €1.50 for 1 bag on a roll of six at €9 that’s got to be some bag.
At 52 bags a year, for 2 bags every fortnight I calculate that costs just about €78 per annum.
One could not make it up. Nor is this the first time they’ve cropped up on the radar.
And the future? I suspect this will see a lot of that waste being dumped or thrown in with ordinary waste entirely undercutting the effort to encourage recycling.
Neat trick too to send out a letter dated November that arrives the day before the charges are due to come into effect. Breathtaking cynicism.
More here…
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
In a clear example of private sector efficiency, we got two of those letters, on successive days, last week. No wonder they can’t afford to give out bags for free.
This really is stupid. As you say. It puts two barriers in the way of recycling – the cost, and the need to go and get the bags. It’s going to hit recycling – which is clearly not something Greyhound care about, but DCC should.
And what really got me was the cynicism.Even the way they spun it – not a charge for recycling, but to cover the costs of the bags… yet you can’t use your own bags.
And I just noticed – is the waiver scheme now gone completely?
And if it’s not, why on earth would someone on the waiver scheme bother to recycle at all, if their general waste is free, but they have to pay to recycle?
Crazy
LikeLike
I hadn’t realised the waiver scheme might be gone but there’s no mention of it, is there?
LikeLike
A reminder that the franchise comes up for renewal in 2014 – tell every local councillor now that you won’t support them in the locals unless they set out clearly how they intend to address this, and either return waste collection in Dublin back to DCC or, at the very minimum, take it off Greyhound for numerous breaches of their contract.
LikeLike
How do the franchises work? In my estate, there are three companies that collect domestic refuse: the one that the Council sold the “business” to, and two competitors that have moderately aggreeively campaigned to win over customers.
Can any licensed company ply for business or is there a limit on the number of companies that can be awarded a lisence?
LikeLike
+1
Greedy tax-‘avoiders’. I think I’d rather have Tony Soprano running the waste disposal services in the city at this rate.
LikeLike
There is a co-op in Dublin that deals with commercial waste.
I would love to see either that co-op expand to include the residential market or a new co-op be set up.
LikeLike
Greyhound were issued with a permit in 2009 for the collection of waste.
it is available on http://www.epa.ie/wastepermit/search and this brings you to the Waste Permit and Cert of Registration database. The number for the greyhound permit is WCP-DC-08-1154-01, it was issued on 9/10/09 and is valid until 8/10/2014.
Under the terms of this permit, Greyhound were awarded first the license for recyclable waste by executive order of DCC and then, early this year, the business of ‘normal’ waste collection. As has being ascertained by Cllr. Anna Quigley, in neither case was there any contract as such – simply an order, which under the terms of the Waste Management Act 2006, the city manager was able to simply gift all of this to a single operator.
LikeLike
I haven’t read all of it, but it looks to me like a license for a waste depot in the City Council area rather than a license to collect the waste from households.
LikeLike
Sorry, didn’t check this time, but that’s slightly weird, because the last time I checked it out, that database included Waste Collection Permits (WCP) – now it seem to be limited to Waste Facility Permits. And when you go to the PDF listing all the permits issues for collections by DCC, Greyhound appear not to be there. I’ll get back to you.
LikeLike
OK, found it. WCPs have been moved to a new agency called the NWCPO who hold all permits nationwide. The list is amazingly un-searchable, but eventually I dug out the Greyhound permit for DCC
http://www.nwcpo.ie/attachments/Waste%20Collection%20Permit%20-%20WCP-
DC-08-1154-01.pdf
LikeLike
……which you’ll need to C+V into your browser…..
LikeLike
This is from this weekend’s Galway City Tribune
COUNCIL LEFT RED-FACED AS BIN TRUCKS REPOSSESSED
City Council officials were left red-faced this week when their fleet of eight bin trucks were repossessed by a leasing company – after the local authority ignored repeated warnings that the service would be withdrawn.
The Galway City Tribune has learned that Paul Holden of Holden Plant Hire in Kilkenny gave several warnings to Council officials after their leasing contract expired last September.
The local authority is refusing to comment on the latest debacle, which saw the city’s bin collection service disrupted this week, but issued a statement to say normal service will resume from next week.
“Galway City Council wishes to advise that due to unforeseen operational conditions, there may be interruption to brown bin collections for the remainder of this week. Galway City Council apologises for the inconvenience caused,” the statement reads.
Barna Waste is providing ‘emergency’ cover for the Council until a new contract is in put in place next week …
[Interesting that private ‘competitor’ stepped in to rescue the Galway City Council, JC].
For the rest of the article:
http://www.galwaynews.ie/29212-council-left-red-faced-bin-trucks-repossessed
LikeLike
O/T, something that was rubbish and not.
Patrick Moore dies
LikeLike
[…] noted in comments here. A complex person, clearly a leading light in the field of astronomy (but as evidenced in […]
LikeLike
It doesn’t matter whether a cat is black or white as long as it catches mice.
I’ve just registered with CityBin. They’re cheaper shysters than them Greyhound shysters. And they’re going after the Lefties Too Stubborn to Quit demographic – the bins are red 🙂
LikeLike
And now we’re moving into Sopranos territory…….
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/six-bin-lorries-torched-in-attack-3327193.html
LikeLike
The opening engagement in this ‘war’ perhaps 😛
LikeLike
[…] the shambles of the waste collection in practice and the – ahem – curious approaches taken by private collectors, one would have thought that would have been first and foremost for […]
LikeLike
[…] would be the same crew as this… and this… and this…. … and relates to […]
LikeLike