Landfill fees driving private waste firms out of Kerry

FOUR of the main private waste contractors in Kerry, who had been using a council landfill near Tralee, have transferred their business to Limerick and Clare landfills because they are cheaper.

This will have implications for Kerry County Council’s 2005 budget and will mean an input of 29,000 tonnes of waste instead of the projected 40,000 tonnes at its landfill.

Charges to private contractors in Kerry are €170 per tonne, including a levy, compared to €155 in Clare and €140 in Limerick, senior environment engineer Brian Sweeney told a meeting yesterday.

Independent councillor Danny Healy-Rae said: “Our waste budget will go ‘skow-ways’ after this.”

Already, the council is under pressure to continue in waste disposal, as many households have switched to private collectors.

The council lost up to 1,000 customers in the past year and this is regarded as a make or break year.

Independent councillor Michael Gleeson asked if there was any way of certifying that all the waste leaving Kerry was being legally disposed of.

Mr Sweeney replied they had been in contact with councils in Clare and Limerick and had no reason to believe there was illegal dumping.

“Audits are also done quite often,” he added.

Independent councillor Brendan Cronin claimed: “These boys are trying to put the council out of business.

“If that ever happened, their prices would go up and there would be no waivers for hardship cases, old age pensioners and others.”

Fine Gael councillor Tom Sheahan felt it was better for Kerry to see the private contractors going outside the county as it would mean the main landfill near Tralee would have much a longer life span.

“Landfills in Limerick and Clare will fill up a lot quicker,” he commented.

Mr Sheahan said the Kerry council had recently agreed to raise €1.5m for an extension to the landfill and the charges to private contractors should be increased, if anything.

The council was told that based on an annual input of 30,000 tonnes, the landfill would have a life span of 40 years.