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Higgins Waste.
A LOCAL waste and recycling company is to increase its service charge from €1.50 to €3 a week, as a result of what it says are huge export costs facing the company since the closure of landfill site in Kildare.
The huge shortfall in landfill capacity in the country is putting immense pressure on waste collection companies and their customers’ pockets, according to John Higgins of Higgins Waste & Recycling Services Ltd, Tralee.
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He said there is an onus on the Government to address the situation in the interest of safeguarding jobs and ensuring that local companies can continue to provide a service to local customers.
The landfill site in Kerry closed in 2013 which led to the transportation of waste, firstly, to the landfill site in Co Kildare, and more recently to the UK and The Netherlands.
A heightened increase on the landfill tax in the UK has resulted in the export market having to deal with a greater percentage of material leading to huge export costs for Higgins which employs 20 people in Tralee.
John Higgins, Managing Director of Higgins Waste, said: “As we move towards the introduction of new EU Waste Collection regulations later this year, we wish to advise customers that the minimum of €30 on your account will not change and the weight charges on your bins will not change. However, in order to continue to offer you the most competitive rates by a local company, we will have to increase our Service Charge to €3 per week from the 1st February 2016. For a limited period from February 1st to June 30th, we will also offer a one off payment system of €130 while the Service Charge increase is not applicable to annual customers.”
Service charges and the pay-by-weight system were introduced in 2015 and since then, Higgins Waste and Recycling say they have experienced a positive response from their customers who have adapted to the new manner in which their waste is collected.
“To keep your costs down we recommend that customers should use the three bins appropriately and, as is currently the case, people whose waste weighs less will pay less,” said John Higgins.
For more information or general queries in relation to how best to manage your waste and recycling costs down, check out Higginswaste.com or email your query to info@higginsenvironmental.ie
So now Higgins want to charge me €12 for driving past my house every 2 weeks?
Don’t think so – bye bye……