The High Court has ruled that a waste collector must provide a separate food-waste collection service to household customers, including existing customers, unless they opt out in the manner set out in the regulations.
Mr Justice Barr delivered the judgment electronically on 13 June 2024 in a consultative case stated from the District Court. The case concerned the interpretation of Regulation 5 of the European Union (Household Food Waste and Bio-waste) Regulations 2015, as amended in 2023. The District Court judge had referred questions of law to the High Court; the High Court answered those questions but did not make final orders at this stage.
The appellant, Oxigen Environmental Unlimited Company, trading as Cavan Waste Disposal, Oxygen Commercial and Oxygen Environmental, argued that existing customers who had contracted for black and green bins should receive a brown bin only if they opted in. It said it had about 70,000 customers: 25,598 had signed up for a brown bin, 6,613 had declined and provided written confirmation about managing their food waste, and 37,811 had expressed no view.
Offaly County Council argued that the regulations required the three-bin service unless a household gave written confirmation that it did not want the food-waste collection and explained how it would manage that waste. It said the updated legal requirements applied to existing customers as well as new ones.
The court accepted the council’s interpretation. It held that the regulations require a food-waste collection service for all household customers, subject to the written opt-out conditions. A reusable brown bin must be provided directly without requiring the customer to pay in advance. The collector may recover the cost of the bin and collection indirectly through charges under customer contracts as amended.
On the existing contracts, the judge said the collector could notify customers of the legal change, explain the charges and give them the opportunity to terminate. With reasonable notice, customers’ silence by the stated date could be treated as agreement to amended contract terms that include the brown bin. The collector would then charge for the service from the bin’s delivery date. The judgment said the collector need not wait until each customer’s annual renewal date if it chose a sufficiently distant implementation date and gave reasonable notice.
The court answered all three questions “Yes”. It directed the parties to provide written submissions on costs and other matters within two weeks. The case was listed for mention on 10 July 2024 for final orders.