merrion street

The Price Monitoring Group actively monitors 26 service providers from across the country. This comprises 19 individual companies with some operating in more than one area.

In keeping with established protocols, all price tracking and validation is completed using a mystery-shopping approach.

The pricing landscape continues to be complex. To date, no single or uniform price arrangement across all of the service providers has emerged, although there continued to be one dominant pricing plan in particular; Service Charge including a Weight Allowance Plus Per KG Charge for Excess Above Allowance.

Complex Pricing Packages

Many waste collection companies continue to offer multiple waste collection packages. This adds to the complexity of the residential waste collection market but also allows residential users to select from a range of pricing options, some of which may be more appropriate depending on their rate of use.

The total number of waste collection packages available across all the markets of the monitored firms now stands at 51, an increase of one from the previous month (a full breakdown of all service offers is included with this report).

During the February mystery calling campaign, there was no change in the total number of pricing packages compared to December; the total number continues to stand 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

Across the 51 price plans, the price variations are as follows:

1. Service Provider G – Service charge increased from €25.50 to €26.50 (Service charge (including weight allowance) plus per KG charge for excess weight above allowance).
2. Service Provider K– Service charge increased from €24.17 to €26.67, interestingly, the service charge has merely reverted to what was being quoted 2 months previously (Service charge (including weight allowance) plus per KG charge for excess weight above allowance). Service Provider N – Decreased waste bin charge per KG charge on waste  - after allowance from €.30 to €.23 (Service charge (including weight allowance) plus per KG charge for excess weight above allowance).
3. Service Provider D– Decreased weight charge on compost from 12c per KG to 10c per KG (Service charge plus per KG weight charge).
4. Service Provider N – Decreased lift charges for all bin types: general waste decreased from €13 to €11, recycling bins from €6 to €5 and organic bins from €7.50 to €5 per lift (Service charge plus charge per lift per bin).
5. Service Provider P – Increased slightly lift charges for all bin types: general waste increased from €11.20 to €12, recycling bins from €3.80 to €4 and organic bins from €5.70 to €6 per lift (Service charge plus charge per lift per bin).
6. Service Provider M – Increased registration fee from €60 to €65 (E-tag).
7. Service Provider F – Decreased their recycling bins lift charge from €6.50 to €5 (Service charge plus charge per lift per bin plus per KG weight charges) 
8. Service Provider F – Slight decrease in service charge from €26 to €25.80 (Service charge plus weight band charge).

Communication of price data

The provision of accurate and up-to-date price information is central to fair market analysis. In the previous month, the Group noted that some waste collection companies are less than helpful or forthcoming on the provision of price information, especially in cases where information is sought by phone call. However, in the most recent round of calls, it noted that communication of pricing information when requested by phone was much improved. It is important that companies continue to ensure all staff is aware of the importance good communication, especially when it comes to providing accurate and up-to-date price information.

Variance of weight limits

Interestingly, company P increased its weight allowance from 75KG to 80KG.

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 nineteen separate occasions: 13^th September, 11^th October, 14^th November, 12^th December, 9^th January 2018, 13^th February, 13^th of March, 10^th April, 14^th, May, 20^th June, 17^th July, August 14^th, September 11^th , October 16^th, November 14^th, December 11^th 2018, January 15^th 2019, February 12^th 2019 and March 14^th 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.