Hard to compare waste bin bills to get best price

Householders are struggling to make meaningful comparisons on waste collection fees because of poor online or phone information from many of the dozens of firms in the market, a Government-backed monitor has warned.

The claim was made by the Price Monitoring Group (PMG), set up last year by Communications, Climate Change and Environment Minister Denis Naughten to track the costs of residential household waste collection during the phase-out of flat-rate services.

While there are more than 60 collectors of household waste in Ireland, PMG watches the fees charged by just 26 service providers. These are across 19 individual companies, some of which are monitored in more than one area.