TENS OF thousands of households in Dublin can expect to pay more for their rubbish collections following a decision by the capital's four local authorities to end private operators' freedom to operate anywhere they like in the city.
Under the change, the local authorities will either collect rubbish themselves from homes, or else license a single operator to collect it - ending the existing situation where two or three private companies are competing for business in a single estate.
Last night, Dublin City Council's assistant city manager, Matt Twomey, strongly defended the decision, arguing that private firms, who have won the business to collect from 40,000 of the 400,000 homes in the capital in just 18 months, have "cherry-picked" the business.
In the face of warnings from Greenstar, City Bins and Panda that they would challenge such a move in the European courts, Mr Twomey said the councils had sought, and received confirmation from the European Commission that they are "operating within Irish and EU law".
"The recent entry of private operators to a section of the Dublin household waste market is unsustainable.
"The authorities fund a waiver scheme for about 70,000 low-income families in the region, to make sure everyone has a waste collection service.
"They also fund waste prevention and waste awareness programmes, employ enforcement teams to catch those who dump their waste illegally, fund recycling centres, bring centres and glass banks for householders, as well as the award-winning dublinwaste.ie website with its very popular 'free-trade' facility.
"The local authorities provide a clean-up service in respect of dumped household waste which can be a serious source of environmental pollution.
"The private sector does not provide any of these essential services," Mr Twomey declared.
Currently, 100 private waste companies are licensed to operate in Dublin, but just three collect from homes. All will now be asked to give full details of their existing business within 21 days.
Following this, the local authorities will "vary, end, or amend the licence to collect household waste", he said.
The restrictions will not apply to the collection of commercial waste, or that produced by apartment blocks: "This is a return to the situation as it existed last November 12 months ago," Mr Twomey told The Irish Times last evening.
He rejected charges levelled by Greenstar chief executive Steve Cowman that the local authorities are clamping down on private operators to ensure that an uninterrupted supply of waste will be available for burning once the Poolbeg incinerator is up-and-running in five years' time.
