For the best part of 20 years now, the Panda Waste company has been growing to become one of the leading recycle outfits in Ireland. Dunleer native Brian McCabe joined the business five years ago as a director and has settled into the role with a prospering company nicely, with hopes of more success in the future.

The name 'Panda' is one which has been firmly established as a major player in the recycling and waste industry in Ireland over the last ten years through its quality and dependable service.
Panda currently operates namely in counties Louth, Meath and Dublin, with the company's main base of operations in Beauparc, Business Park, Navan, and services 60,000 domestic customers. These customers are offered both a black and a green bin collection and over 3,000 commercial/trade customers are serviced nationwide. As well as this, Panda recently secured an extensive contract to service all Dunnes Stores throughout the 32 counties in Ireland.
"We have three different sites," explained one of the company's directors, Brian McCabe. "Our main office is in Beauparc Business Park in Navan in Co. Meath and we have two others, one in North Dublin and the other in South Dublin."
Panda was established in 1973 and purchased in 1990 by Eamon Waters, the current Managing Director of the company. Since then, Panda has grown from being a small local operator to a major business with an annual turnover in excess of 40 million euro, employing in excess of 200 people across the company's three facilities.
The company is now one of Ireland's leading experts in waste collection and is providing a comprehensive household waste collection service in Dublin. Panda offers residents of DLRD, South County Dublin, Dublin City and Fingal the opportunity to benefit from savings on their household bin charges, plus free fortnightly green bin collections.
"Eamon Waters purchased the company back in 1990 and only started with two trucks.
Now, there are over 200 employees across the business and over 80 trucks," explained Brian.
Unlike a lot of companies, Panda anticipated the decline in the construction industry before things took a sudden turn for the worst in this country in 2007, and wisely put their concentrations elsewhere.
"We realised that the building business was slowing down about three years ago, so we entered into the Dublin market and since that time we've obtained about 15 per cent of that market, which is a good achievement. Our aim is to target 25% of that market.
"We also collect recycling materials outside Dublin and we would be the biggest paper and cardboard recycling operation in Ireland," said Brian
The waste industry has changed dramatically over the past ten years and Panda has adopted and been innovative in its approach throughout, for which there are several examples.
Panda are the first company in Ireland to invest in the Wright Compost Tunnel System at a whopping cost of 3 million euro, licensed timber recycler in Ireland, as well as the largest paper and cardboard recycler in Ireland. They are also the first company in this country to offer a free household glass recycling service as part of the household collection service.
Brian has been with Panda for the past five years and has seen growth year on year. Times are more diffcult now but we have to keep changing to meet the needs of our customers and keep raising the bar to be ahead of our competitors.
In 2007, the Panda Waste company's high standards in recycling performance were rewarded with the company being crowned the Repak 'Recycling Operator of the Year' -Large Company. This year again, Panda were in the final to win the award for the second time in three years for the efficient services they have carried out.
It's this quality and reliable service which has saw so many loyal customers continue to avail of Panda's service over the last 19 odd years. Dunnes Stores, Dundrum Shopping Centre, Dundalk Institute of technology are just some of the names which have been onboard with Panda for many years now and the trend looks likely to continue well into the next decade and maybe even beyond.
"Our staff are highly trained and we would do a lot of work with the Louth County Council and other Councils as we have the permits to comply with the work they request," said Brian.
"With Dunnes Stores, we have secured an extensive contract which sees us servicing their stores in ever county in Ireland and that is hopefully a partnership we can keep active, because Dunnes are a good Irish brand and well recoginsed by the people in this country."
So to that end Panda are breathing comfortably through these difficult economic times and there can be little debate that their immediate future looks more than secure.
However, what about the company's plan for the long-term?
"We are in the process of building a new facility which is set to cost between eight and ten million," said McCabe. This project consists of 2 processes, the first one been a Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF). This process will allow us to make a product out of the waste that normally ends up in landfill and meet a specification that allows this material to be used in cement kilns instead of burning coal. The other part is for a 50000 Anerobic Digestion Facility (AD). This facility will allow us to process all the organic waste fraction and through the process create a gas that can be turned into electricity and cater for our needs and put the surplus back in to the grid as well as making a suitable product from the material that allows it to be put back on land that meets all the necessary regulations.
"In 2006 the company purchased an extensive site on the Cappagh Road, Finglas, Dublin 11 to operate a waste transfer and recycling facility, and a year later Smurfit's Recycling, Ballymount, Dublin was acquired to facilitate the company's planned expansion into the recovery of dry recyclables and packaging.
"Now we are looking to expand again with the Dublin market still number one our agenda, with Meath and Louth next in mind," he added.
As a growing business over the past two decades, naturally, Panda have been asked to lend out a helping hand where required and when it comes to GAA clubs in need Eamon Waters has more often than not left them wanting for nothing.
"We've done various different sponsorships with local clubs and it would be a case of us not wanting to choose one over the other," said Brian
"Since the company's considerable growth, GAA clubs in and around Meath and Louth have come to us asking if we could help with fundraisers like golf classics and other things and almost more often than not we do what we can for them."
Incidentally, Brian has no GAA background as such but his wife more than makes up for his lack of involvement as a member of the St Kevin's camogie and ladies football team in Philipstown, Co Louth. Tweet

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