Sale of big wheelie bin company in Laois labelled 'ludicrous'

Ireland's biggest trade union is planning to meet Fianna Fáil TDs for Laois and other midland counties over what it says is the 'ludicrous' sale of the region's biggest waste company into private ownership.

SIPTU has also stated that the proposed sale by the State of Bord na Móna Recycling is untenable in light of an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report released on Monday, December 16 which says Ireland will miss its mandatory EU recycling targets that apply from 2025 onwards.

SIPTU opposes the reported sale of the taxpayer-owned business for €55 million to a Kerry-headquartered company.

SIPTU Transport, Energy, Aviation and Construction Divisional Organiser, Adrian Kane, said: “The reported decision of the Government to privatise Bord na Móna Recycling flies in the face of the findings in the EPA’s Circular Economy and Waste Statistics Highlight Report 2022.

“It is ludicrous to sell Bord na Móna Recycling at a time when the report showed that ‘Ireland’s progress towards a circular economy was stalling’. It is not possible to increase recycling when almost one in four households in the State do not even have a domestic waste collection service, a statistic that the EPA neglects to report.

“Ireland is unique in allowing side-by-side competition between domestic waste collection services within local authority areas. SIPTU, which organises waste workers across the country, has been calling for a wholesale restructuring of the sector with a view to the re-municipalisation of domestic waste services. We agree with the EPA that there must be greater ‘investment in new circular economy infrastructure’. It is clear, that selling the last remaining state infrastructure in this sector will undermine the goal of increasing levels of recycling,” he said.

He added that worker representatives want to meet with TDs to make the case.

“SIPTU Organisers and Bord na Mona Recycling Shop Stewards are scheduled to meet with several Fianna Fáil TDs representing counties in the Midlands on Thursday (December 19) to ensure that the incoming Government is under no illusion about the level of opposition to the sale of Bord na Mona Recycling from the workforce and the negative impact it will have on our environmental targets,” he said.

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It emerged in November KWD Recycling, a Kerry-based waste company, is understood to be the preferred bidder to buy Bord na Móna Recycling. 

Bord na Móna completed a €61 m acquisition of waste management company Advanced Environmental Solutions (Ireland) in 2007. It was reported at the time that the acquisition of part of Bord na Móna's strategy of diversification into waste management and power generation.

Bord na Móna’s position on the deal has been that a strategic review of its recycling business is still in progress. It says that further comment cannot be provided on industry speculation concerning its outcome.

The company has planning permission to build a major anaerobic digestor near Portlaoise that would use organic waste to produce natural gas and fertiliser. Most of the raw material would come from waste collections.