Put-based waste collection ends in Vuores as costs spiral nearly €20 million

YLE writes that waste pipe-based collection is being wound down in Tampere’s Vuores due to financial difficulties, with the planned service change coming from May 1 and the system being used until the end of April.

The operator, Pirkan putkikeräys, failed to secure enough use agreements with residents in apartment buildings and in detached homes, according to Pirkanmaan jätehuolto’s managing director Pasi Muurinen. He says no contracts emerged in sufficient numbers to continue the model, because many customers rejected the proposed fees as too high. For detached homes and small apartment buildings, the fee was expected to rise from about 360 euros to about 760 euros per year, while larger apartment buildings with over 15 units would have faced an increase of more than 20% starting from the beginning of May.

In place of the pipe system, Vuores residents will have waste collected via local collection points—shared on-property collection locations offering comprehensive sorting options, without households having their own dedicated bins. The company’s board discussed the matter on Friday and decided to call an extraordinary general meeting to shut down the system in a managed way through liquidation proceedings. By spring 2024, the pipe-collection company had already spent about 19 million euros on the system, and the final cost was expected to be roughly three million euros higher. Pirkanmaan jätehuolto had lent the project six million euros, but it is unlikely to recover the money because the operator has little or no assets.

The pipe system is also used in Tampere at Ranta-Tampella by the Näsijärvi lakeshore, where its future remains open. Muurinen says talks with the area’s housing companies are ongoing; residents there have been dissatisfied with waste fees and have demanded compensation from the city for the portion related to pipe-collection costs. The housing companies have requested over 230,000 euros in total, while their lawyer declined to comment. Muurinen adds that the system could continue at Ranta-Tampella because it is not as expensive for customers as in Vuores, partly due to lower density costs—fees there were set to increase by just over 3% at the start of May.