Privatised bin collections have turned Dublin “into the wild west” when it comes to waste management, a Sinn Féin Councillor has complained. 

Earlier this week, bin collection company Panda announced an inflation busting price hike for its 300,000 customers in North County Dublin. 

Other companies are expected to follow suit and Sinn Féin’s Daithí Doolin believes it is “absolutely” time for councils to take charge of waste collection once again. 

“We passed a motion five-years ago that was passed unanimously by Dublin City Council,” he told The Hard Shoulder. 

“It set up a working group to investigate remunicipalising waste collection service. 

“We’ve done that; we’ve produced an independent report by the IPA and it concurred that Dublin is the wild west when it comes to waste management. 

“Dublin City Council and the local authorities have no active role to play in issuing licences and we think that’s wrong - we’re out of step with the rest of Europe.” 

Bin collection. Picture by: Alamy.com.

Cllr Doolan said such a system would be “driven by need, rather than price, rather than shares”. 

“Our preference would be that you would have the four local authorities come together and actually manage the waste management strategy for the four local authorities,” he said. 

“So, you’d have a critical mass, you’d have a critical number of local authorities. 

“We have the staff, we have the expertise but, unfortunately, we’ve no active part to play in it right now.”

Bins in Dublin. Picture by: Collins Photos.

Conor Walsh, Secretary of the Irish Waste Management Association, rejected the idea of local authorities taking control of bin collections once again. 

He described the current system as “highly regulated” and also “highly competitive”. 

“It’s regulated by the local authorities, the regional authorities, the national authorities and the EPA,” he said. 

“It’s not out of control - nothing wild - and because we have this competition in the market, people have choice.” 

Mr Walsh said people get “good value” as well as a “good service”. 

“Our members compete on service and price and… the price increases have been 9.2% on average over the last five-years and inflation’s been 20%,” he said. 

“So, we’re running at less than half inflation - so, people are getting good value.”

You can listen back here:

Main image: Rubbish bags. Picture by: PA.