Waste Bye-Laws Project 2023 – 2026

Fingal County Council introduced Waste Bye-Laws (Segregation, Storage and Presentation of Household and Commercial Waste) in January 2020. The key objectives of the Waste Bye-Laws are:

To encourage households and businesses to manage their waste in an environmentally responsible manner.
To promote better segregation of household and commercial waste.
To ensure only authorised waste collectors are used to dispose of waste.
To reduce illegal dumping and backyard burning of waste

We want to encourage all householders and commercial premises to play their part in the Circular economy and move away from the take, make and dispose, “Linear” models of the past. Our key aim is to encourage and educate individuals to make the right choices regarding their waste and to participate in an authorised waste collection service.

Illegal dumping, as well as being unsightly, causes significant harm to the environment and to wildlife. The dumping of waste, particularly food waste, can attract vermin which has significant health and safety risks. Clean-up costs for illegal dumping is a huge burden to the taxpayer, money which could be better spent on improving public services within local communities.

The Waste Bye-Laws will help Ireland in playing its part towards delivering on the Circular economy model. Recent revisions to the Waste Framework Directive introduced the following recycling targets for Municipal Solid Waste (MSW):

55% by 2025
60% by 2030
65% by 2035

Fingal County Council has initiated a project to assess compliance with the Waste Bye-Laws to help achieve these recycling targets. Phase 1 of the awareness and enforcement campaign commenced in 2023 with the establishment of a register (waste register) of households who currently have a waste collection service in place.

Fingal County Council is required to maintain a register of every person who participates in a waste collection service under Section 34 of the Waste Management Act, 1996. This information provided annually by waste collectors operating within Fingal was used during Phase 1 of the project to develop a reverse register using Eircodes to identify areas where waste collection services were not potentially in place.

Phase 2 of the project commenced in 2025 where information was sought from 4,000 householders identified as not currently participating in a waste collection service (i.e. listed on the reverse register) to confirm how they were managing their waste as per Bye-Law No. 2: Obligation to participate in a waste collection service. Door to door inspections were also undertaken where there was no response to the initial 2 letters seeking information on how household waste was being managed.

Phase 3 of the project commenced in 2026 and information is currently being sought from a further 3,500 households identified as not potentially having in a waste collection service (i.e. listed on the reverse register) to confirm how they are managing their waste. For those households that don't engage, door to door inspections will be undertaken followed by Fixed Payment Notices (FPN's) if it cannot be established how waste is being managed in accordance with the Fingal County Council Waste Bye-Laws 2020.

Householders can fill in a Waste Declaration form

The Waste Bye-Laws require all households to comply using one of the following options:

Have an active account with an authorised waste collector for the provision of bins to allow for kerbside collection of your household waste.
Bring your segregated household waste to an authorised site that accepts it. Receipts as proof of this are required to be maintained.
Bin-Sharing. Two households come together to share the same bins and waste account. A bin sharing agreement must be in place signed by both parties. For a link to the form, click here.

Where householders do not engage in the process, directions and fixed payment notices will be used by Fingal County Council to encourage all householders to comply with the Waste Bye-Laws. The goal is to maximise compliance with the Waste Bye-Laws throughout Fingal without having to resort to enforcement or legal action through the courts and every opportunity will be given to householders to put an appropriate waste collection service in place to achieve this. We all have a responsibility to manage our waste and to protect the environment for future generations and compliance with the Waste Bye-Laws will help to achieve this.

Householders are asked to be aware of the “Man in a Van” waste removal services. There are a number of operators offering this service at a reduced rate to take away your domestic waste rather than paying for a kerbside collection. Many of these operators are unauthorised and don’t have a waste collection permit and have been known to bring household waste to remote areas to illegally dispose of it. Unfortunately, if evidence is found in illegally dumped waste which relates to a householder, it is the householder that will pay the price (i.e. €150 under the Litter Pollution Act and possible prosecution under the Waste Management Act). If householders know of anyone offering these ‘Man in a Van’ services, please contact [email protected] or Tel: : 01 8905000.

The Waste Bye-Laws project is the start of an investigation into household waste management compliance in Fingal and will run for a number of years until accountability of all households has been achieved.

A copy of the Waste Bye-Laws is available for inspection at Fingal County Council offices at 1/ Main Street, Swords, Co. Dublin K67 X8Y2 and 2/ Grove Road, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, D15 W638.

The Waste Bye-laws can also be found here: https://www.fingal.ie/council/service/fingal-county-council-segregation-storage-and-presentation-household-and-commercial

The Environment Department Privacy Statement for the Waste Bye-Laws Project can be found here

For further information on how to correctly manage your domestic waste, please visit www.mywaste.ie/about-mywaste/