COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

south dublin county council crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, December 12, 2011

QUESTION NO. 3

QUESTION: Councillor J. Hannon

To ask the Manager to clarify the position in relation to the following:

1. Arising from the sale of the refuse collection service, has ownership of the black bins passed to Greyhound or does ownership reside with the individual customer, many of whom made a payment to South Dublin Co Council for their bin when the service was introduced replacing the bag system?

2. Is there a dispute ongoing over ownership of the black bins, and is the Council and/or Greyhound party to same?

3. Is he aware that the above issue is mitigating against competition in the market thus impacting adversely on the general public in South Dublin?

REPLY:

  1. It is the Council´s position that at the time of the roll out of the black wheelie bins in the late 1990's, the charge of £30 (€38.09) was a one off payment towards the delivery of the bin.  The Green and Brown bins were delivered free of charge.   The Council retained ownership of all bins and when any customer transferred their service to another provided they requested the Council to come and collect its bins at no charge to the customer.  No new provider was allowed to use a Council bin (now a GRR bin) and had that new provider provides bins to its customers.
  2. Included in the sale of the refuse collection service on 1s April, 2011 were the black, brown and green bins.  There is no dispute over the ownership of the bins.  They  now belong to Greyhound Recycling and Recovery Ltd (GRR)   In the event of a customer wishing to leave the GRR service they contact a new provider and request that the old bins be removed by GRR in the same way as they did with the Council or indeed any other waste provider from which they wish to transfer
  3. The Council issued a joint letter with GRR to all customers setting out the position and customers are assured that they have exactly same the right to transfer as they did with the Council service.