Waste giant Bingo’s expansion plans have hit a speed hump with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) raising concerns about its plans to acquire rival Dial-a-Dump.
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Bingo has been expanding its skip bin collection service into the Illawarra, where it has taken over Wollongong Recycling at Kembla Grange.
The plan to buy out Dial-a-Dump would make Bingo the largest building and demolition (B&D) waste collector and processor, as it would be removing one of its major competitors.
This would remove competition both in the present-day and the future, ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.
“We are concerned about the effect of the proposed acquisition in relation to processing, landfill and collections.
Competition between Sydney landfills is likely to become more important after the introduction of the Queensland landfill levy
- Rod Sims, ACCC chair
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“Our preliminary view is that the acquisition would remove Bingo’s most substantial competitor for B&D waste processing, particularly in the eastern suburbs and inner Sydney.
“Although alternative facilities exist, our current view is that many are not viable alternatives as they either will not accept third party mixed B&D waste, charge significantly more for heavy loads, or are too far away to constrain Bingo from raising prices.
“The acquisition would remove future competition between Bingo’s and Dial-a-Dump’s dry landfill, which may lead to higher gate fees than would be likely without the acquisition.”
“Competition between Sydney landfills is likely to become more important after the introduction of the Queensland landfill levy, which will make transporting waste to Queensland more expensive.”
Bingo CEO Daniel Tartak said strongly disagreed, and would try and convince the ACCC otherwise.
“We remain firmly of the view that the acquisition would not have the effect of substantially lessening competition in the Greater Sydney market,” he said.
“We provided the ACCC with an extensive dataset, supported by a number of industry-leading experts, demonstrating this.”
A final decision is expected from the ACCC in February.
