Council defends waste tendering plan

Dublin City Council has said a plan to put the waste collection services of the four local authorities in the city and county out to tender represents the most organised and environmentally sustainable form of competition in the market place.

The council also said it believed the tender system, which would award specific areas for waste collection to specified contractors, would result in fewer lorries competing for business in local neighbourhoods, less carbon emissions, and reduced noise and nuisance.

The council said the move would also be the best way to protect the jobs of waste collection staff, as new contractors would be required under EU regulations to take on existing workers.

Assistant city manager Matt Twomey said the tendering service was more orderly and environmentally sustainable than open competition.

Mr Twomey told The Irish Times several lorries going into housing estates each week was an unnecessary contribution to carbon emissions, noise and traffic hazard.

In addition, the tender "also offers security for the winning contractor", he added. Mr Twomey said there was already a tendering process in relation to collection of green bins and one was planned for the brown bins while the proposed incinerator was a public private partnership.

However, as the deadline for submissions on the proposal closed yesterday a number of private operators criticised the plan.

Greenstar, one of the State's larger operators, said the council was "looking to airbrush competition out of the domestic waste market".

The move was "self-serving and bad for consumers", Greenstar chief executive Steve Cowman said. "The evidence is clear that competition and innovation benefits customers, not local authority monopolies."

In the South Dublin area The City Bin Co calls the change "a very serious mistake". Managing director Niall Killilea said: "We believe that the variation is an attempt by the local authority to use its regulatory powers to maintain a monopoly-like grip of the market."

The council will now study the responses and if it opts to go ahead with the plan it will come before councillors in February.