UP TO 18,000 former Dublin City Council household bin customers have not yet signed contracts with the company which bought the council’s waste collection business.
Greyhound Recycling and Recovery has said it will stop collecting bins from these customers from tomorrow if it does not receive a payment of at least €62 from customers.
It is not known how many of the 18,000 households have chosen an alternative private company since the council divested itself of its waste-collection business last month.
The council last December sold its list of 140,000 customers to Greyhound, but householders are not obliged to sign up to the service.
Private waste firm Oxigen said it has signed up new customers across Dublin city.
The company would not say what proportion of the 18,000 customers it had secured, but a spokeswoman said it has had particular success with attracting custom from the north side of the city and Dublin 6.
Unlike Greyhound, Oxigen allows customers to avoid paying annual standing charges if they pay a higher charge per lift.
Oxigen had no plans to increase its charges mid-year as it had already factored in the increase in landfill levies due in July, the spokeswoman said.
Customers wishing to have Greyhound collections must pay the annual service charge of €100 or a six-month payment of €50 if they sign up to an automatic top-up payment, which requires them to maintain €12 credit with the company for their lift charges.
In a statement yesterday, Greyhound chief executive Michael Buckley said there would be “no exceptions” to that policy. He added that Greyhound was the cheapest operator in the market.
While according to Greyhound, up to 18,000 customers have not signed up to its service, the number of households not intending to pay its charges could be far higher. The 33,000 customers who are in receipt of a waiver of the annual standing charge do not have to pay the fee by tomorrow.
These customers do have to pay the lift charges of €6 for the large grey bin, €3.60 for the small bin, €3 for those using bags and €2 for the brown bin before their bin will be collected.
Greyhound would not answer queries yesterday so it is not known how many of the 33,000 customers have made pre-payments.
Householders who continue to present bins or bags without paying for a private waste collector could face prosecution.
The city council has said it is no longer responsible for the operation of waste-collection services, but a spokesman said it would use its enforcement powers to deal with accumulating waste from households that have not signed up to a waste collection service.
