UNDER NEW LAWS, local authorities can request waste companies to hand over the name and address of householders they service.
The aim is to identify those who have not signed up for a waste collection service and who may be disposing their waste by other means, such as fly-tipping.
Councils also want to determine what householders are not separating their food waste, which is an offence under some local authorities’ by-laws.
The purpose of the new rules introduced at the beginning of July is to provide local authorities with information of households who are availing of a “kerbside collection service in the first instance, so that households which are not availing of a collection service can be highlighted”.
The Department of the Environment said it was always envisaged that such measures would be included in the legislation in order to aid enforcement.
Bin collection
The department said waste collectors do not have lists of people who have no collection service, only details of persons from whom they collect. Therefore the householders omitted from those lists can be targeted by local authorities.
“Particular local authorities have local enforcement initiatives around householders demonstrating how they are managing their waste. Receiving details of households which are on a kerbside collection service allows local authorities to target their enforcement on households which do not appear to be availing of a service,” said a spokesperson for the department.
Similarly, some local authorities have local enforcement initiatives around the roll out of the food waste bin; details of persons who choose to home compost and not to have a food waste bin may also be requested by a local authority.
Offaly County Council states on its website that people can no longer put their food waste in with their general waste bin. The council says it saves money for the consumer and is better for the environment.
Separating food waste
Under the European Union (Household Food Waste and Bio-waste) Regulations 2015, a timeline has been provided for household waste collectors to provide or arrange for a separate collection service for food waste from households in designated “brown bin” areas.
Recently, the waste collection industry came in for criticism for upping the charges, forcing the Minister for the Environment Simon Coveney to tackle the issue by means of a price freeze to end in June 2017.
Responsibility for overseeing bin charges has now been transferred from Coveney’s office to the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Denis Naughten.
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