Councils to find and target households not paying bin charges

Local authorities will be able to find and target households that do not pay bin charges, under regulations introduced from the beginning of July, it has emerged.

When requested, waste companies will have to provide the names and addresses of people who do pay bin charges to local authorities.

The Department of the Environment has said the purpose of collecting this data is so allow “local authorities to target their enforcement on households which do not appear to be availing of a service”.

A spokesman also said the details of people who say they are home-composting instead of using the brown food-waste bin may also be requested by a local authority.

Offence

The aim of this is to identify householders who are not separating out their food waste, which is an offence under bylaws in some local authority areas. The introduction of the notification requirement follows a pilot project in the north inner city by

Dublin City Council

.

Officials randomly inspected households and then fined residents who could not provide evidence their waste was being disposed of legally. The new regulations were included in a statutory instrument (SI), the main aim of which was to nullify previous regulations for the introduction of pay-by-weight charges from July 1st.

An SI, which does not need the approval of the Dáil, becomes law once the relevant Minister has signed it.

In addition to giving information to local authorities, the regulations require waste collectors to supply data to householders, including the weight of each of their bins, at least once a month, and the registration number of each truck used.