Bourke Waste Removal celebrates 25 years

06/07/2023

Bourke Waste Removal Ltd is a leading waste management company in the West of Ireland which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary with the opening of a new state-of-the-art segregation facility in Westport.

Fronted by Stanley Bourke and his sons Ross and Adam, and specialising in household / commercial waste, skip hire and confidential shredding, the family-run business employs 42 people and has 18 trucks on the road, including a new MAN TGM 18.250 rigid with skip loader bodywork. The multilift (HIAB) skip gear was fitted by GBL, while the truck was purchased from Martin Hough of Dennehy Commercials in Limerick.

There are four skip lorries – two MAN and two Scania – and 10 bin lorries in the modern fleet which services customers across Mayo. While most of the bin lorries are Mercedes-Benz, the newest is a Renault which was bought new last year from Shaw Commercials in Castlebar. Completing the fleet is a MAN hook loader, Scania and MAN curtainsiders, and a MAN tractor unit.

There was great excitement at Bourke Waste Removal’s Clogher base on Friday, February 17 last when Michael Ring TD performed the official opening of a €600,000 segregation facility in front of a large gathering of family, friends, customers and staff. As well as securing the company’s long-term future, the facility will allow it to expand with even more efficient delivery times to its household and commercial customers. Furthermore, it will increase the amount of material recycled while reducing the volume of waste going to incineration.

Deputy Ring enthused: “To have such a top-quality company in Mayo is a huge boost and the service they give domestic and commercial clients is second to none.

“The State walked away from waste collection some years ago and but for Stanley and the likes of him, I don’t know where we’d be. They stepped into the void and the way they conduct their business is a credit to them and their staff.”

Bourke Waste Removal was founded in September 1998 when Stanley and his late wife Marie entered a business that was completely new to them at the time.

“I had just given up a secure job in Allergan to take over a dairy farm of 35 cows from my father Eric,” Stanley explains.

“However, within three months, the BSE crisis happened and dairy farming crashed. Marie was working at the time and that was the only thing keeping us going. Her brothers Dermot and Kevin ran a bar and restaurant in Castlebar and said they had problems getting their waste collected, and that got us thinking.

“We took out a loan and bought a Seddon Atkinson bin lorry. We also bought wheelies and managed to get 15 householders to join us in the first week. After three months, we reached 100 households and were up-and-running. Each customer left £2 under their bin as payment for collection.”

Bourke Waste Removal opened its first recycling facility in 2004 and now collects waste from 5,000 domestic customers and over 500 commercials customers in Westport, Louisburg, Newport, Mulranny, Achill, Castlebar, Islandeady, Ballyheane, Ballintubber, Partry, Breaffy, Balla, Belcarra, Ballyvary, Swinford, Straide, Foxford, Ballina, Crossmolina, Moygownagh, Ballycastle and Killala. It also provides a skip service to customers as far away as Clifden.

“We cover a wide area, including Connemara with skip services. Our commercial clients include Hollister IE in Ballina, Abbvie (formerly Allergan) in Westport, Baxter Healthcare in Castlebar and the Castlecourt Hotel Group in Westport. We provide a top-class service,” Ross Bourke says.

When it comes to the vital task of promoting environmental awareness in Mayo, nobody is doing more than Bourke Waste Removal. Offering a wide range of waste management solutions to customers, it is dedicated to the diversion of waste from landfill through the re-use of valuable resources to create closed material life cycles. Producing secondary raw materials and reprocessing to produce new products promotes resource efficiency and is an environmental necessity.

Bourke Waste Removal offers refuse collections to all parts of Co. Mayo. This is a two-bin service comprising a blue bin for general waste and a green bin for recyclable materials such as paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, aluminium and steel cans. The family business prides itself on providing the best value for household and commercial waste collection.

The fleet is maintained at the company’s modern workshop, while all drivers are fully-trained, professional and take great pride in their work. As Bourke Waste Removal continues to go from strength to strength, the company would like to take this opportunity to thank its customers and suppliers for their support as well as its staff for their hard work, dedication and expertise.

Here’s to the next 25 years!

Bourke Waste Removal Ltd

Unit 1A,

Westport,

Altamount Street,

Westport,

Co. Mayo.

Telephone: 098 26882

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.bourkewaste.ie

First published in Irish Trucker magazine Vol 26 No 3, May/June 2023