Councils urged to carry out spot checks of bins due to low recycling rates

Local councils should carry out spot checks of household bins and prosecute those who fail to properly separate their waste, the environmental watchdog has said.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said that while 520 local authority staff across the country had carried out 197,000 environmental inspections last year, "in many areas it is not delivering the necessary environmental outcomes" related to water quality and waste separation.

Poor waste segregation remains an ongoing problem with households and businesses still putting the majority of their waste in the wrong bin, the EPA said.

"Local authorities need to enforce the roll-out and use of three-bin systems, to improve segregation and increase recycling of both household and commercial waste," it said.

More than two-thirds of waste in general household and commercial bins should be placed in the recycling and organic waste bins, the latest data show.

The EPA confirmed it wants to see local authorities step up checks on homes and businesses to ensure waste is being separated properly, using the likes of spot checks or collecting evidence.

There should be targeted inspections in areas where data show low compliance, the EPA said.

The mandatory separate collection of food waste from 2023 requires focused enforcement of the national roll-out and use of the three-bin system, the EPA said – that means local authorities should bring prosecutions against offenders, it said.

Dave Pollard of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement said: "Improving recycling rates through better segregation of wastes into the general, recycling and organics bins is essential if, as a nation, we are to turn waste into a valuable resource and reduce the amount of wastes we are sending to incineration and landfills."