The cost of collection of residential household waste was broadly stable in the month of June compared to prices in the previous month. This is based on the latest analysis conducted by the Price Monitoring Group which actively monitors 26 service providers from across the country. This comprises 19 individual companies, with some firms operating in more than one area.
Pricing landscape for residential waste collection is complex
Similar to previous analysis, many of the waste collection firms monitored offer multiple waste collection packages to their customers. This means there are far more waste collection packages than firms.
In the month of June, the total number of recorded waste collection packages was 49, the same as the previous month (a full breakdown of all service offers is included as part of this report).
See report here https://www.dccae.gov.ie/en-ie/environment/topics/waste/the-householder-and-waste/household-waste-collection/price-monitoring-group/monthly-analysis/Pages/Monthly-Analysis-2019.aspx
During the June mystery calling campaign, there was no change in the total number of price packages compared to the previous month which stands at 8. Examples of price packages include: Service charge plus per kg weight charge; E-tag and other options (the full list of all pricing models is incorporated with this report under the data analysis).
Where prices did change
Some price variations occurred across the 49 price plans with some increases and some decreases recorded.
The June price variations are as follows:
- Service Provider A – Increased the service charge from €24.50 to €25.50 - however, this represents a reversal from the previous month where it had recorded a decrease from €25.50 to €24.50 (Service charge including weight allowance plus per KG charge for excess weight above allowance).
- Service Provider A – Decreased the charge per kg for the waste bin from 35cent to 33cent - similar to its other price plan changes, this is a straight reversal of price increases the previous month where this provider increased the same charges from .33 to .35 (Service charge plus per kg weight charge).
- Service Provider C – Increased the monthly service charge from €10 to €15 (Service charge plus per kg weight charge).
- Service Provider C – Decreased the service charge from €13.17 to €10.00 (Service charge plus per kg weight charge).
- Service Provider D – Increased the service charge from €23.00 to €25.83 - (Service charge including weight allowance plus per KG charge for excess weight above allowance).
- Service Provider D – Increased the service charge from €19.00 to €29.17 - (Service charge including weight allowance plus per KG charge for excess weight above allowance).
- Service Provider F – increased the service charge from €24.83 to €25.80 - (Service charge plus weight band charge).
Communication of price data
Generally, disclosure of price information was a little more challenging in the month of June compared to May with some company staff referring callers to their websites for their most up-to-date price information. Whether or not this was as a result of summer staffing levels or other reasons, it continues to be critical that waste collection firms ensure access to their most up-to-date pricing is accessible to all users, either by phone, mail or online. They must also ensure they cater to customers that in some cases may not have online access either as a result of poor or no internet connection or are not proficient using online services.
Why information is anonymised
The purpose of the Price Monitoring Group is to establish and track whether the prices householders pay for the collection of household waste fluctuates and if so, by how much. It does this by using a mystery-shopping approach to a proportion of licensed waste collection firms. However, since price monitoring is not carried out on a whole-of-market basis, it is not in a position to publish names of those firms that are actively monitored.
Composition of the PMG
The group comprises representatives from:
- Waste Policy & Resource Efficiency Division
- An economist from the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment,
- A statistician from the Central Statistics Office.
- Shelfwatch – an independent price monitoring group and
- Frank Conway, (MoneyWhizz) – independent consumer expert.
To date, the Price Monitoring Group has met on twenty-three separate occasions: 13th September, 11th October, 14th November, 12th December, 9th January 2018, 13th February, 13th of March, 10th April, 14th, May, 20th June, 17th July, August 14th, September 11th, October 16th, November 14th, December 11th 2018, January 15th 2019, February 12th, March 14th, April 9th , May 14th June 11th and July 9th, 2019.
Submissions to: pricemonitoringgroup@dccae.gov.ie
Please note this email has been put in place to facilitate the submission of relevant price information to the Group. The Group will consider all submission that can help inform it in respect to prices residential users pay for the collection of residential waste. Unfortunately, the Group is not in a position to respond to individual submissions at this time.