Greenstar Waste Collection

Sizzler

Has anybody considered this as an option instead of paying the ridiculous charges that FCC are handing down?

Got a leaflet from FCC in the door yesterday comparing how good they are in comparison to Greenstar and how you get more for less money......it was slightly flawed though ! For example they claimed €5 a month charge would be levied by Greenstar for glass recycling (WTF?) Theres bottle banks all over the county so how can they claim that as a saving??

A guy in work had a Greenstar rep call to his door last night and went through the whole thing with him, €55 a year and they'll start taking your refuse now and its €2.80 after that per collection.

Out of sheer principle Id rather use Greenstar than give my hard earned cash to FCC. Their cynical leaflet of misinformation didnt help either ! I hope Greenstar have the gumption to aggressively pursue the business in Fingal

Wishbone Ash

FCC are obliged to collect your waste - Greenstar are not. If you are the only one in your area who chose to use Greenstar, they may serve you initially but, in the long run, I can't see them sending a truck and staff out of their way to pick up one bin.

Presumably Greenstar don't operate a waiver system either.

Sizzler

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

FCC are obliged to collect your waste - Greenstar are not. If you are the only one in your area who chose to use Greenstar, they may serve you initially but, in the long run, I can't see them sending a truck and staff out of their way to pick up one bin.

Presumably Greenstar don't operate a waiver system either.

Greenstar dont offer a waiver system but why would you be bothered? You can keep your waiver system with FCC, the only reason to change vendor would be to avail of better pricing but if you dont pay for it in the first place

Yes you might be right there but thats a decision for them to make isnt it, I will certainly try them out. If we all took the attitude above then nobody would change to them, give them a chance

Wishbone Ash

Sizzler wrote: »

Greenstar dont offer a waiver system but why would you be bothered? You can keep your waiver system with FCC, the only reason to change vendor would be to avail of better pricing but if you dont pay for it in the first place

I don't require a waiver.

My point was that FCC are required to service about 20%(?) of homes who don't pay for it. Greenstar are not required to do this giving them an automatic advantage.

Sizzler wrote:

Yes you might be right there but thats a decision for them to make isnt it, I will certainly try them out. If we all took the attitude above then nobody would change to them, give them a chance

But you can make the change safe in the knowledge that you can always fall back on FCC as they have statutory obligations.

I'm not advocating using one company or another, just playing devil's advocate.

Sizzler

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

I don't require a waiver.

My point was that FCC are required to service about 20%(?) of homes who don't pay for it. Greenstar are not required to do this giving them an automatic advantage.

Well with their new charge of €110 they can afford to do that

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

But you can make the change safe in the knowledge that you can always fall back on FCC as they have statutory obligations.

Exactly. No harm in giving someone else a try for that very reason.

I emailed Greenstar earlier and they replied within 20 mins, now thats service!

Thought Fingal residents might find it useful

Thank you very much for you email and your query regarding Greenstar’s Home Refuse & Recycling Service in the Fingal Area. Firstly let me begin by explaining our offer.



Our service includes 3 bins (DMR & Glass are optional).



1 X 240L General Waste Bin
1 X 240L DMR Bin (Dry Mixed Recyclables)* Clean Cardboard, Paper, tin / aluminium cans, catalogues, plastic bottles, drink cans, newspapers, milk / juice cartons, tetra pak and magazines.
1 X 140L Glass Bin


The Collections on a four week basis will be as follows



4 X 240L General Waste Collections
2 X 240L Recycling Collections
1 X 140L Glass Collection




The cost for this service is as follows



Yearly charge (upfront) €55

Cost per black bin collected €2.80

Cost per Kg €.0.175

Recycling Collection Free

Glass collection €5 per lift





The average weight per General Waste bin is 25kg, this works out at €7.18 saving 10% on your current €8 tag charge. You are also saving 50% on you Fixed Yearly Charge as with Greenstar you only pay €55 instead of the €110 charged by Fingal County Council. As the recycling is collected every second week for free, the more you recycle the lighter your bin is and the lighter the bin is the more you save.



Signing up is easy and can be done over the phone by contacting our dedicated customer service team on 1890 500 800



If you would like to refer to our Website www.greenstar.ie it will be updated this afternoon



If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above number or I can be reached at this email address



Kind Regards

Wishbone Ash

Thanks for the info Sizzler.

(I can't see too many using the glass option though considering, as you said, there are bottlebanks everywhere.)

Does anyone know if they concentrating on urbanised areas of Fingal or all of Fingal?

Sizzler

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Does anyone know if they concentrating on urbanised areas of Fingal or all of Fingal?

The impression I got was all areas but sure give them a shout to check..

I'm going to try them out anyway, if you sign up with them now their €55 charge covers 14 months (i.e. covered till 1st April 2009)

SeaSide

Okay - so the average black bin weight is 25kg. Whats the maximum weight likely to be? we do lots of recycling already so the black bin goes out once a month and tends to be very heavy. Any thoughts?

Wishbone Ash

SeaSide wrote: »

Okay - so the average black bin weight is 25kg. Whats the maximum weight likely to be? we do lots of recycling already so the black bin goes out once a month and tends to be very heavy. Any thoughts?

I'd say mine is closer to 100kgs!

Sizzler

SeaSide wrote: »

Okay - so the average black bin weight is 25kg. Whats the maximum weight likely to be? we do lots of recycling already so the black bin goes out once a month and tends to be very heavy. Any thoughts?

Once a month would be €2.80 plus the 'average' weight of 25kgs...so they reckon its gonna cost you €7 odd....even if it was a tenner a go and you left it out only once a month you are doing well to be honest.

greatgoal

from experience,average bin weight is around 40 kilos,which customers are going to be billed for on top of the 2.80,plus the 55...no waivers for pensioners and the unemployed...lid must be closed flat and charged extra for extra bags...and this is only for the first year...bad choice...havent much time for the council but reliable..and the guys are approachable.

greatgoal

forgot to add,no fortnightly brown collection,glass can be brought to the free reclycling zones...no 5euro charge.

greatgoal

wishbone...100 kilo bin=2.80 +:eek:100 kilos at 17 cents=19.80

Wishbone Ash

I presume the Greenstar charges are tax deductable (@ 20%)?

greatgoal

like the councils..they cost you more to apply for them than you get back...lol.:D

wow sierra

I will be sticking with the council too. They provide a very good service, at a below cost price. I don't know how Greenstar think they can undercut them. I assume the wages and conditions of their employees will be beyond disgraceful but even taking that into account I would assume the price will rocket once they are established. I only hope that they don't get established because if they do we might end up losing the council service.

Re Tax relief all you need to do is ring the Tax office.You dont need to write in or send in ticket stubs or anything. That is to apply for it for this year - if you want it for previous years theres a bit more to it.

greatgoal

at last..someone with a bit of sense..well put my man ..if the council is privatised theres no going back and the skys the limit for the private man...and yes very small wages compared to the council binmen:)

Wishbone Ash

greatgoal wrote: »

at last..someone with a bit of sense

Did I not make sense in post #2?

greatgoal wrote:

and yes very small wages compared to the council binmen:)

Probably non-unionised staff or no regognition given to a trade union.

greatgoal

touchee my man ...:D

greatgoal

fingal are not required to take 20% of your waste as they are now in direct competition with private enterprise...if the majority of consumers go with the private man,then the council will not be able to compete and will concede to privatisation and hand over the lot and there will be no going back,then we will all suffer the consequences..so be warned,we will all be fleeced down the road.:mad:

tbh

I think the point Fingal CC were making was that, as part of the the money you pay them, you get all the extras like recycling centres etc. The implication, for me anyway, was that if ye all feck off to greenstar, ye can forget about dropping stuff off for free lads! To be honest, I think the pricing from greenstar is attractive, but I kind of feel like it's my duty to go with the council. I suppose I'm a bit of a sheep, but there it is

greatgoal

youve gotto go with your instincts..but if the council lose out to greenstar,with whom theyre now in direct competition with...they will not have the funds to support the free reclycling stations,which will close,but the question is , will greenstar take them over and still supply a free reclycling service,i dont think so,good point though.:rolleyes:

Sizzler

Wasnt aware that Greenstar wouldnt except a bin that wasnt fully closed :eek: I left out my bin after Xmas stuffed to the rafters AND 2 black bags and the lads took it...but thats prob cos I slipped them €20 for Xmas, they dont forget;)

greatgoal

good for business at the moment,but ican guarntee it wont last,they were told to do this for a short period of time.:(

Fingleberries

Did anyone else get a leaflet from the Council yesterday?
- They say "No one will pay the full charge in 2008", like that's a benefit. It's just because they won't be ready to roll it out in January, so if they charged for a full year it would cause public outcry.
- You get one free bin tag this year, that they will give you within the first month of getting your cash.
- They also go to town on Greenstars charges.

therecklessone

Fingleberries wrote: »

Did anyone else get a leaflet from the Council yesterday?
- They say "No one will pay the full charge in 2008", like that's a benefit. It's just because they won't be ready to roll it out in January, so if they charged for a full year it would cause public outcry.
- You get one free bin tag this year, that they will give you within the first month of getting your cash.
- They also go to town on Greenstars charges.

What do people expect the council to do?

They've introduced the fixed charge because they aren't making enough from bin tags to pay for the whole refuse and recycling servive they provide.

If people switch to Greenstar en-masse then the council will either need to scale back their services or increase costs again in the future.

I'd rather pay now than switch to Greenstar and find the council forced out, with Greenstar left to pick and choose what services they provide.

greatgoal

thats basically the story...theres no choice here....if the council hand over.....its the end of cheap services as we know them...and the dole q for the men that have been looking after us for years....and 400to 500 a year in the not too distant future.:(

SeaSide

I dont think the council have been honest in the way they have approached this. There is a previous thread where the introduction of the fixed charge was discussed and the view is that previously the council had guaranteed that there would be no fixed charge introduced.

the council have been very good at increasing the charge over the year as from memory the charge 3 years ago was just 3 euro and is now 8. so that a getting near a 300% increase.

the leaflet that was sent out is very selective in terms of the costs that it lists for 2008.

greatgoal

the council started at 5euro and i agree about the honesty issue but the private man will be even worse as has been proved in most other counties in ireland.