Three bin system

Using your three household bins in Ireland – what goes in each bin.

What goes in each bin?

All households in Ireland, with a kerbside waste collection service, must be provided with separate collections by their service provider for:

The recycling bin

For mixed dry recyclables.

The brown bin

For food and garden waste.

The residual waste bin

For items that cannot be recycled or composted.

Why good bin use is important

Recycling turns what would be waste material into new useful products or back into the same thing again – glass bottles and jars are a great example as they are infinitely recyclable. This reduces energy consumption, emissions, the use of finite raw materials and helps control air, water and land pollution that may occur the more the ‘general’ or ‘residual’ waste bin is used.

Recycling is a group effort that works best when everyone takes part. We all have a role to play to sort our waste as well as possible and maximise what is recycled.

Loads of recyclable materials that are contaminated with non-recyclable items or with food waste can end up in landfill.

It only takes a minute to rinse out plastic, glass and tin containers and sort our cardboard, this is a simple climate action we can all take.

Currently Ireland recycles approximately 30% of all plastics in use in the country. Recycling targets for packaging are very challenging, the targets set by the EU are to recycle 50% of all plastic by 2025 and 55% by 2030.

All of us play a part in helping Ireland achieve the EU and national targets. You can play your part by ensuring all soft plastic is now placed in the recycling bin clean, dry and loose.