PMG – Waste collection prices continue to be broadly stable in August

August 2019 data – Prices quoted for the collection of residential household waste was broadly stable in August compared to 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

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 August, the total number of recorded waste collection packages was 49, an increase of 3 compared to July...this equals the number of packages recorded in June (a full breakdown of all service offers is included in the data part of this report).

During the August 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 August price variations are as follows:

1. Service Provider J – Decreased the service charge from €20.95 to €18.50 - (Service charge including weight allowance plus per KG charge for excess weight above allowance).
2. Service Provider L – Increased the service charge from €25.00 to €28.00 (Service charge including weight allowance plus per KG charge for excess weight above allowance).
3. Service Provider A – Decreased the per KG charge on the waste bin from 35cent to 33cent (Service charge plus per kg weight charge).
4. Service Provider B – Increased the service charge from €13.17 to €13.50 and increased the per lift charge on the compost bin from €4 to €5 - (Service charge Plus Charge per lift per bin).
5. Service Provider C – Increased the service charge from €10 to €10.50 - (Service charge Plus Charge per Lift per bin).
6. Service Provider P – Decreased per lift charges on all bins; Recycling decreased from €4 to €3.80, Organic decreased from €5.50 to €5.20, Waste decreased from €12 to €11.20 - (Service charge Plus Charge per Lift Per Bin).
7. Service Provider F – Decreased the service charge from €26.00 - €25.80, this price change is an exact reversal of pricing from a month earlier - (Service charge plus weight band charge).
8. Service Provider O – Increased the per lift charge on the waste bin by 30cent to €9.35 (Service charge plus charge per lift per bin plus per kg excess charge).
9. Companies X and W both increased the per lift charge on waste bin from €9.90 to €10.50, the organic bin from €4.90 to €5.50 and recycling from €1.00 to €1.25 - (Service charge plus charge per lift per bin plus per kg excess charge).

Communication of price data

Generally, there was little issue attaining pricing information from waste collection companies during the July mystery calling campaigns.

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-five separate occasions: 13^th September, 11^th 2017, October, 14^thNovember, 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, March 14^th, April 9^{th ,} May 14^th June 11^th, July 9^th, August 20^th 2019 and September 10^th, 2019.

 August analysis is available here