Panda compost/brown bin

Those in Fingal area in Dublin have only access to one bin provider and that is Panda. Fingal County Council only gave one licence for house hold waste collection.

Just got notification that they will now charge extra for green (garden waste) . Thought the €120 service charge was to cover the garden waste! Service charge was €110 the year before. 

Oh they did say I could have an extra garden waste bin and recycling bin! How good of them but they will charge per lift!

Oh I forgot to say they started charging per lift and weight for the recycling the year before.

Complaining to Fingal County Council is a waste of time as they are not interested. They are getting money for the one licence they have issued. Panda/green star collect the bins for Fingal offices as well.

That's not true about only 1 bin company in Fingal, we use Panda but some of our other neighbours use another company, I know because our bins go out on different days depending on company we use.

Can you please name them so we can check the rates and charges? If they are using for commercial bin collection then they have other options. I contacted 3 companies last year and none would provide bins apart from Panda. (North County Dublin)

Greyhound pick up in Swords.

120 litre, it's only collected every second week (alternates between brown bin and recycling with general waste every week). With garden trimmings it's very easy fill and previously enquired whether they had a 240 litre option which they didn't. Now with the increased pricing you can get a 2nd bin but you pay on the double for it with the exorbitant lift charges.

I got the same, DLRCC. I have just, yesterday, paid my current invoice which included the annual service charge 27/3/23 to 26/3/24 €90.13.

Then got the email this morning that the services was going to change as per the above but they would give me credit for the amount paid.

Very sharp practice from Panda. They waited until I had paid to change the T&C's. Who regulates this crowd?

Edit: just sent an email complaint to the CCPC

I think Greyhound and Panda are owned by the same group but I could be wrong.

Greyhound provide commercial waste collection for councils. When you go to swords recycling it is greyhound that drops the skips/ bins I. The recycling centre.

Dont know if you can use Bonkers for checking out pricing.

Reckon the bees will be thanking panda for all the wild gardens this will result in 😂

DLRCC? It seems that the per lift charge has gone?

What is pissing me off here is that they sent me an invoice on Wednesday with a standing charge of €90.13 up to april 2024, which I paid yesterday. Then got notified after close of business yesterday, when they had my money, of these new increased prices. Very sharp practice which is why I have contacted the CCPC.

I suggest others would do the same!

Got mine yesterday after paying the invoice. Did you pay yours yet?

Likely to be a massive uptick in home composting also.

If you do go down that route - no cooked food or raw meat unless you actually like rats; and you may need to do stuff like layering in newspaper if you are adding lots of grass clippings. The week that my bin company added brown bins I stopped doing it; and would probably stay stopped even if they brought in a reasonable charge; but if it was by weight I'd be going back. Or paving both gardens.

Pre-pack fruit and veg in supermarkets basically needs to stop, entirely and immediately. I have noticed that the worst excesses - e.g. apples being sold in polystyerene trays wrapped in clingfilm like they were when I was a kid - seems to be mostly gone; but bags of carrots and so on have to go. Its utterly pointless and its 100% at the behest of the supermarkets that it's sold that way - to save a few seconds at the checkout.

I do most of my veg shopping in a greengrocer that just stopped even offering plastic bags a few years ago - they used to have bags for when you were pciking and bigger bags for when you paid. It makes checkout a tiny bit slower; and some people do still have to ask for a bag when they pay; but I have a decent amount of cloth bags so there should always be at least one in the car; when they get a bit manky they go in the wash with other stuff. Probably stopped hundreds of flimsy plastic bags going to, at best, incineration since they did that.

Although I don't typically fill my brown bin to the brim between collections, I've noticed that even when it's only half or a quarter full, it can still emit unpleasant odors in the summer and attract unwanted pests like flies and vermin.

That's why I remember being advised to put the brown bin out for every collection, to prevent these issues from becoming a bigger problem. Since there was no fee for the compost bin collection, it made sense to follow this advice and put it out regularly.

I've personally submitted an email objection to the new charge for each lift of the brown bin, and I would strongly encourage others to do the same in writing. Let's make our voices heard!

This is on Pandas website but you have to dig for it and put in an address to see the price plans. Find it https://www.panda.ie/plan/waste-only/

Waste   1-3 households    4+ households

Monthly price     --    €22.50

Service charge   €125.00    --

Discount    €30.00    €22.50

Estimated annual bill   €210.00    €247.50

Monthly waste allowance   n/a    65kg

Waste excess per kg       €0.28

Cost per lift   €10.25   

Recycling allowance   n/a    Unlimited

Recycling cost per lift   €0.80   

Recycling cost per kg   €0.04   

Compost allowance   Unlimited    Unlimited

Compost per lift   €3.80   

Panda sell the brown waste to the Energia Group. This was in the Independant Mar 2019.

Energia Group has signed a €50m bioenergy agreement with waste-management group Panda.

Energia will convert 70,000 tonnes of Panda organic waste collected from black and brown bins from across the Dublin area into electricity at its soon-to-be commissioned Huntstown Bioenergy Plant.

Panda - a subsidiary of the Beauparc waste management group - will begin supplying organic waste to Energia in June when the new plant begins its commissioning phases.

You might be better to contact them directly and ask. We pay service charge in Jan and June and bin lifts paid on demand(few days after lift). 12 month contract starts in Jan.

I emailed to complain about the charge and got an automated response that a member of staff will contact us but could take up to one working day.

A few years ago they were going lift and charge per weight and there was uproar. They are gradually introducing the charges. First increase the 6 monthly service charge and then pay per weight for green bin and lift charge of the bin. Now the brown bin and lift charge of the brown bin.

I received the same plan offer but anyone who is offered this plan and has only very light usage should be careful about accepting. Friends of mine have been offered a much different plan with an ANNUAL Service Charge of €90 which is the same as I paid last year plus lift/weight charges (see below). I checked back my actual lifts and weights for last year using this plan and it comes to €167, (€12 more than last year but quite some saving over a flat €210)

Yearly Service Charge.....90.00

General Waste per lift.......4.35

General Waste per Kg.......0.31

Recycling per lift.............1.30

Recycling per Kg.............0.065

Compost per lift..............3.08

Compost per Kg..............0.188

EDIT: This is in DLR.

They say also

Shortly after the 1st May, we will apply a credit/payment of 70.92 to your account in unused service charge previously paid. This will be discounted from your next invoice.

My parents are ~80 and though on good pensions are not stupid with money.

They would perhaps only put out a full black bin twice a year and use the local recycling centre in DLR weekly to take whatever green waste they have and so put the green bin out only occasionally too.

The received the proposed change in pricing structure, as outlined in posts above to begin in May, in the post two days ago, 52.50/Q etc.

Considering they had paid €77 p.a. in January to cover the basic charge for the whole year, they were less than impressed, and so Panda inadvertently unleashed onto themselves my Mother in full battle mode, a sight that despite her gently advancing age, had become no less awesome in all the time I've known her.

The main thrust of her argument was, than despite economic inflation of say 10% and even allowing for sectoral rates being a bit higher, their proposed increase of 173% amounted to thievery and that the Directors of Panda really ought to explore methods of engaging in copulation with themselves.

Although it took about 45 minutes on the phone, she completed the call having had her annual rate reduced to that already paid and with a €50 credit to be applied to her account by way of an apology for any upset caused.

So, despite their appalling practice and customer service, theres the precedent folks, nobody should just accept paying what is being notified to people now, phone them, get it reversed and make sure to humiliate Panda as a brand anytime you get the chance, because they need to catch a grip on reality.

What are the new rates for DLR with Panda? I received no notification of increase.

Each colour bin is collected by a different truck.

I pay Thorntons by weight of my black bin only - brown and green are not charged.

Thorntons also give the produced compost away!

Lots of other minor issues with them so they're not idea, but this claim that everyone else pays for brown bins is untrue.