New requirement for all households to have brown bin from January 'won't be an overnight change'

A NEW REQUIREMENT for all households to have a brown bin which comes into effect in January will ‘not be an overnight change’, a group representing waste companies has said.

New legislation coming into effect on 1 January entitles all households to a brown bin collection service for food and garden waste, subject to their provider’s lift charges.

Currently 68% of households has access to a brown bin service, and it is now being extended to around 400,000 – mostly rural – homes, with off-shore islands are excluded.

Households also must be provided with a garden waste collection at least once a month from March to October.

Advertisement

An EPA report found that as much as 21% of household waste placed in black or green bins was actually organic waste, which could be separated into a brown bin.

Speaking this morning to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, the secretary of the Irish Waste Management Association – a trade association with members such as Oxigen, Panda, and and Greyhound – said it will not be an overnight change, as the legislation was only finalised in the past week.

“The waste company will contact [the household], so you don’t have to pick up the phone and ring right now,” Conor Walsh said. 

Brown bins will be rolled out to all households on a phased basis, adding that households have a “legal obligation” to segregate waste correctly.

Walsh said there “are a lot of reasons why we need to segregate food waste”:

People may not know that we make compost out of it. We make biogas out of it. The biogas replaces a fossil fuel gas. Compost replaces peat. So environmentally, it’s very, very important that we segregate the food waste.

Households who decline to use a brown bin will be “required to notify their collector in writing, together with details of how they will manage their food waste”.

Making a difference
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
For the price of one cup of coffee each week you can make sure we can keep reliable, meaningful news open to everyone regardless of their ability to pay.
Support us Learn More