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Positive judgement for Consumer Choice, Better Recycling and Lower Costs for Dublin Householders
Dublin – 21st December 2009
Greenstar, Ireland’s leading waste management company, has welcomed today’s High Court finding that Dublin’s four local authorities acted anti-competitively and predetermined the outcome of the consultation process to vary the Dublin Waste Management Plan.
Effectively DCC attempted to exclude the private sector from household waste collection and recycling by unilaterally changing the rules of the Dublin Region Waste Management Plan.
Welcoming the decision, Neil Parkinson, chief executive of Greenstar said:
"Today's decision is very good news for the thousands of Dublin householders who have switched to the private sector for their waste collection. Companies like Greenstar offer a more cost effective, efficient and dynamic service which has evolved with consumer needs and it is for this reason that the majority of household waste in Ireland is now collected by private waste operators.
"All the innovations which have benefitted Dublin households in recent years - like kerbside glass and more frequent green bin pick-ups - have come from the private sector. These innovations have helped the consumer to significantly boost recycling rates above those which existed when the local authorities had sole control of the market.
"Competition in the household waste market has therefore been good for the consumer and good for the environment. Today's judgement will allow these benefits of better recycling at better prices continue.
"The positive judgement today throws a spanner in the works for DCC who are scrambling to control the waste market in the Dublin Region. DCC has guaranteed to supply the waste to the grossly oversized incinerator it is seeking to develop jointly with Covanta in Poolbeg and it will face penalties if it does not deliver the volume of waste contracted. With today's ruling it is becoming clear that, unfortunately, it is the Irish taxpayer who will once again have to underwrite a bad deal.
"In addition to being good news for Dublin consumers, the positive outcome today provides the private sector with the impetus for fresh investment in new and novel technologies. This investment in Green Technologies will continue to increase the quantity and quality of our recycling while also creating jobs and increasing exports of higher quality raw materials through the development of Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT). MBT can deliver very high recycling and produce fossil fuel substitutes and greatly reduce the need to burn or bury valuable resources contained in black bin waste in incinerators.
"Today's decision will allow us expand our current service footprint in Dublin to offer households innovative recycling and collection services at lower prices across all four local authority areas in due course. More importantly, Dublin consumers will benefit from competition being allowed to continue in the market. "
Background Information
The four local authorities first indicated their intention to vary the Plan in June 2007 and called for third party submissions. In March 2008, they confirmed their decision to vary the Plan without any modifications to the original proposal and without holding a hearing. The local authorities also failed to disclose their reasoning for rejecting submissions on the proposed variation from third parties including Greenstar. Greenstar was granted leave by the High Court to seek a judicial review of the planned variation in April 2008 and the case was heard by Mr. Justice McKechnie in November 2008.
In addition to claiming that the decision to vary the plan had been pre-determined in advance of the consultation process, Greenstar had argued that the actions of the four authorities were anti-competitive, an abuse of a dominant position, and bad for householders in that they would be denied the benefits from competition in the marketplace.
About Greenstar
Greenstar is Ireland's largest recycling and waste management company providing sustainable environmental solutions to over 10,000 businesses and over 70,000 homes nationwide.
Greenstar has 565 employees, of which 339 employees and a further 60 contract staff are based at its Dublin operations. Greenstar operates 3 EPA licensed Materials Recovery Facilities (MRF) utilising state-of-the-art automated recycling technology to service the Dublin area. Its specialist paper packaging recycling and commodity trading division and its subsidiary BioVerda Power Systems, which generates renewable energy, are also based in Dublin. Greenstar recycled over 275,000 tonnes from the Dublin area in 2008 and its renewable energy division generated enough electricity to power 30,000 homes.
Greenstar has invested over €320M since it was founded in 1999 to develop essential integrated waste management infrastructure and is making further investment in it's Dublin operations to produce fossil fuel substitutes (SRF) from waste previously sent for disposal.
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