Cork County Council Sell Waste Collection Service

Sunday, 29th August, 2010. Cork County Council today announced that it has reached agreement with Country Clean Recycling Ltd for the purchase of it’s waste collection business. The agreement was reached following a competitive process involving a number of waste management companies operating in the private sector.

Cork County Council faces a number of challenges in its service areas, including waste management. Falling customer numbers, coupled with rising costs associated with a new EU Landfill Directive on the pre-treatment of waste, and the introduction of a VAT charge of 13.5%, has resulted in Cork County Council being faced with an unsustainable financial position in relation to its waste collection business.

In order to combat these challenges, a Waste Management review was undertaken in 2009 which highlighted a €1.6 million budget shortfall for 2010. Following the review, Cork County Council decided to begin investigating all available options in relation to its waste collection business. This included carrying out market research with a view to selling the waste collection business.

Today’s decision will allow Cork County Council to deploy staff and resources in other key service areas throughout the County. As part of the agreement, the Council has secured a continuation of the waiver scheme for a further twelve months.

Declan Daly, Deputy County Manager, said: “Given the significant reduction in our customer base over the past number of years and rising costs associated with our waste collection business, we had no option but to undertake a root and branch review of this part of our operation. Unfortunately, the outcome of the review clearly pointed to an increasingly unsustainable financial situation in our waste collection business, particularly in light of a highly competitive private sector marketplace and additional costs in relation to the EU Directive on VAT and pre-treatment of waste. I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to our staff in the waste collection services area and to confirm that we intend to deploy these staff members to improve service delivery in other operational areas within Cork County Council”.

Denis Murphy, Financial Controller of Country Clean Recycling Limited said “Country Clean Recycling is delighted to have been awarded the sale of Cork County Council’s kerbside collection service. It will give a huge boost to the local economy with the creation of a further 30 jobs in the local area. In addition to that, Country Clean Recycling will extend the waiver scheme to twenty four months on the basis of customer loyalty. We will also be implementing an immediate reduction of 10% in waste charges to all non-waiver customers. Furthermore, we will be rolling out additional new services to Council customers.”

Referring to the benefits and improvements in this new opportunity for customers, Declan Daly, Deputy County Manager, said.” “We will work with Country Clean Recycling to help facilitate an orderly transfer of the waste collection business so that the changeover process is as smooth as possible for our customers”.

Cork County Council would like to reassure its customers that the transfer of the business to Country Clean Recycling Ltd will not give rise to any disruption. The Council will write to all existing waste collection customers in the coming days to explain how the transfer process to Country Clean Recycling Ltd will take place. Information is also available at www.corkcoco.ie and www.countryclean.ie.