Repercussions of Contaminating Your Domestic Bins
With the introduction of Pay-By-Weight billing, and the Household Food Waste Regulations, waste service providers are outlining the actions they will be taking should contaminated bins be presented to them for collection. The penalties can include stickers being placed on bins, non collection of the contaminated waste, fines and withdrawal of service. You will see below some samples of policies being put in place by Waste Service Providers.
“Segregate your waste appropriately.Please note the procedure in place should the incorrect waste be placed in a bin (e.g food waste placed in a recycle bin). Photos will be taken of the contaminated bin. Customer care will then contact the customer to inform them of the contamination and a note will be put on the customer’s account. After 3 contaminated bins the customer’s account will be closed”. Thornton’s Recycling.
“In the event of the contamination of a Bin being identified, the Bin may not be serviced as per schedule. A separate service arranged at a cost of €50 will be incurred, in addition to the weight/ lift/service charge. In the event of the contamination being identified post service; the customer may be charged a disposal /cleaning charge of up to €50 in addition to the weight/ lift / service charge”. Oxigen.
“Bins contaminated by materials NOT on the YES list or wet, dirty material will not be collected. A Rejection Sticker will be placed on contaminated Bins. The owner must remove the contamination from rejected Bins. Put your bin out for collection on next recycling day contaminant free” Country Clean.
“In the event that a bin with recyclable material is contaminated, and our crew notices this prior to the bin being emptied into the vehicle, then we will place a sticker on your bin asking for the error to be rectified and we will not empty it. If the crew member does not notice the contamination until after the bin is emptied into the vehicle, then The City Bin Co. may apply a charge of €30 per bin per incident ” CityBin.
“Segregate your waste appropriately. Please note the procedure in place should the incorrect waste be placed in a bin (e.g. food waste placed in the recycle bin): Waste and/or black bags will not be accepted in any recycling bin. Plastic
will not be accepted in the food/compost bin. Such bins presented with incorrect material may result in non-collection and/or incur an extra charge”. KWD.
“Remember that each bin can only take a certain type of waste. Bins contaminated with incorrect waste will not be collected” Dungarvan Recycling.
In tandem with these measures being taken by the Waste Service Providers, Enforcement Officers from the WERLA’s can also at any time inspect your bin and impose penalties, leaving you the householder or waste presenter with not only your waste not being collected, tagged and you possibly being penalised by not only your Provider, but also by your local Enforcement Officer. Mixing household waste will therefore become a high stakes game with serious repercussions, a game which can be easily avoided by properly segregating your waste.