Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael)
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622. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if owners or management companies of apartment blocks are required to provide full waste disposal and recycling services including glass to owners or tenants of the apartments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32425/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Under waste management legislation, collectors of household waste are required to provide receptacles for the collection of residual, recyclable and food waste, in line with the requirements of their waste collection permit issued under the Waste Management Act 1996 (No. 10 of 1996), the Waste Management (Collection Permit) Regulations 2007, (S.I. 820 of 2007) as amended, and the European Union (Household Food Waste and Bio-waste) Regulations 2015.

The Regional Waste Management Plans 2015-2021 () contain a specific action to allocate resources to the monitoring of apartment complexes to improve compliance with segregation of waste prioritising the reduction of contamination. In addition, new template bye-laws developed by the Regional Waste Management Planning Offices will, if adopted by the elected members of a council, inter alia,place the onus on management companies to ensure that appropriate receptacles are provided for the proper segregation, storage and collection of household waste, including recyclate and food waste, as appropriate and in line with national requirements.

There is no obligation on collectors of household waste under waste management legislation to provide a collection service for  glass or glass bottles. In terms of the recycling of glass, recent data (links provided below) indicate that we are at or above an 80% recycling level. There are over 2,200 bring banks and 100 recycling centres across the country, which support these high recycling levels for glass. Further information is available at the following links:

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Though not under my remit, I am aware that Guidelines for Planning Authorities on design standards for new apartments were published in December 2015 and address the issue of the storage and collection of waste materials in apartment schemes. Further information is available at the following link: 

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