Caitríona Redmond: I asked Panda about its new fuel surcharge for waste customers

The slow trickle of increased prices across the Irish economy is making us all feel hard-pressed.

The fuel surcharge may be an incentive to reduce what you put in your black or general waste bin, but that doesn’t make it any easier to accept.

DO WE really have to pay the fuel surcharges and levies that businesses may introduce in the wake of the fuel crisis?

At the start of the month, I got the email that many Panda waste customers have received, alerting me to a new 97c monthly fuel surcharge to reflect the increased cost of fuel. The business says it will apply this surcharge only during the fuel crisis, and if prices settle, it will no longer be applied to customers’ invoices.