The household waste collection system could be due for a revamp.

Bin companies may start to take ­responsibility for an entire geographic area rather than competing for customers on the same street.

The new change, however, may come at a cost to customers as they will no longer be in competition with one another, meaning companies will have full control over their costs.

Consumer journalist with the Irish Independent and presenter of The Home Show on Sinead Ryan said that Ireland is currently an outlier in Europe’s waste collection scene.

“It was privatised a couple of decades ago, and different providers came in and they said, we’re going to do this street, we’re going to do this county,” she told Lunchtime Live.

“But the resultant effect has been, as people know, that in very densely populated areas like Dublin, where I live, there can be three and four different bin lorries going up and down on different days.

“In rural areas, there might be none, and that can lead to other problems like fly-tipping, people not having access to recycle their waste and all that kind of thing.

“So, this is really to see, should we come into a system whereby, instead of five companies competing on Main Street, in fact, you tendered for an area?”

P6Y9JC Blue bin mixed recycling

According to Sinead, it isn’t currently clear whether the system will be broken down into postcodes or whether it would work on a neighbourhood or county basis.

“That’s what part of what this document is supposed to do,” she said.

“This consultation process is going to take now until the end of spring, so people shouldn’t be holding their breath.”

Consumer protections

Sinead pointed out that this proposal is backed by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC).

“It has to be balanced out about the structure under which any new system might operate,” she said.

“For instance, it probably wouldn’t be fair to allow, and let’s just use a random example - Panda - because it has Dublin or, you know, certain postcodes that it can charge double what Greyhound might charge somewhere else that is more rural based.

“So, I imagine that any such system would have to take into account.”

Main image: Refuse collectors riding on rear of collection lorry in Spain. Islandstock / Alamy. 31 January 2018