Tag: refuse collection

New waste management option – AES

Representatives from AES Waste Management visited the estate and attended our recent AGM.  They have a new range of pricing structures that may prove attractive to residents.

Two options are available. One is on a monthly fee basis where recycling and refuse are collected every two weeks for €16.50 until up to next year. This includes a glass bin collection service every 12 weeks.

The second option is a pay by lift service, which is the most common option in the estate at the moment with existing waste management companies. They are charging €6.99 for general waste bin collection (up to to 65kg and 18c/kg in excess of 65kg) and €1.99 for a recycling bin.  The duration of this limited period option is not known yet but does represent the lowest cost option when compared to Wallace and Allied Waste at the moment.

Collection day

AES will collect bins on Fridays in Ashefield.

Saying goodbye to bin tags

AES are also offering a pay as you go service if you set up an account with them. This means that the cost of each bin lift can be deducted from your account. You can top this up online, over the phone, or at an outlet, and you’ll receive a text when your balance is low.

Local employment

Some employees of AES live in Ashefield and when AES were asked at the AGM, they stated that they do employ a large number of people from the Mullingar area.

Opportunities for the estate

At the AGM,  AES mentioned that depending on the amount of signed-up customers in Ashefield, skips and cleaning equipment for the estate may be made available on a yearly business for estate spring-cleans  and other clear-outs with free skip collection when full.

So there you are – another option worth considering for bin collection.  If you have any questions, the best option is to call them at 1850 650 655

Bin wars

In what is being described as ‘bin wars’, the confusion over who legally owns the refuse and recycling bins originally given to local residents was addressed by the council recently. In this week’s Westmeath Examiner, they report that:

County Manager Danny McLoughlin said that 14,000 Blue Bins and 1,000 Brown Bins had been purchased by Westmeath County Council over the past six years and delivered to its customers for their use in the Council’s waste collection service, but having taken the decision to get out of the refuse service, they had legally sold them to Oxigen Environmental, as part of the public tendering process.

In addition to the bins, the database of customers was also sold to Oxigen. This explains why you might have seen their stickers plastered on the bins after leaving them out for emptying. However, the Westmeath Examiner also reports that someone from a refuse company entered private property during the night to place a sticker on a bin. This of course, is illegal so please do report any instances of trespassing to the Gardaí.

The situation seems to be somewhat clearer now. McLoughlin continues:

“…if people did not want to do business with Oxigen, they should phone the company and ask them to take the bins away: “People should give the bins back because they don’t own the bins, these bins were transferred to this company legally”

Read the full article

Both Allied Waste Management and Wallace Recycling will continue to empty the bins as normal. Unlike Oxigen, these are smaller local companies employing local people in a tough market so it makes sense to maintain your support for them. In particular, Allied Waste has been serving Westmeath for the past five years and are less expensive than Oxigen’s normal bin tag prices also.