The charges applied by waste management companies are matters for those companies and their customers, subject to compliance with all applicable environmental and other relevant legislation, including contract and consumer legislation.
In terms of environmental legislation, the charges applied should encourage householders to divert waste from the residual or general waste bin. For example, it would be expected that charges for the general waste bin would be higher than charges, if any, applied to the recycle bin.
The Government has funded a range measures to support better recycling and reduce contamination of waste, including:
- a national, standardised list of items that can go into the recycle bin, available at http://recyclinglistireland.ie/ ; this initiative has been supported through a campaign run by the regional waste management authorities comprising radio advertisements, social media, billboards/posters, etc., to promote the new list;
- a ‘master recycling’ programme, also run by the regional waste management authorities, in partnership with environmental NGOs, to roll out 650 workshops across the country training recycling ambassadors to bring the recycling message and understanding to a wide variety of communities;
Almost all paper and plastic packaging is governed by EU internal market and packaging legislation. In that context, as Minister, I have called on the European Union to urgently consider collectively banning single-use plastic items on foot of the EU Plastic Strategy to further protect the environment and to help alleviate the impact of the decision by China to restrict its intake of recyclable waste.
In addition, I have also provided Government funding to support and encourage better separation of waste through a number of initiatives such as:
- the Stop Food Waste programme www.stopfoodwaste.ie, which is implemented under the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Waste Prevention Programme and is aimed at both householders and businesses, providing comprehensive information about the food that is wasted and how to prevent this, and,
- the development of a website www.brownbin.ie to provide the public with the information required to use the organic bin appropriately, including advice on the optimal methods for effective collection and storage of food waste.
