International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

4.0 The Role of Local Authorities
4.1 Functions as Regulator and Service Provider
In Ireland, local authorities have two functions in the waste management sector. They
are responsible for both providing waste collection and disposal services, and playing
a role in the way in which these markets are structured and regulated. Often the
provision of waste management services is contracted out to private firms; the
alternative is the local authority providing this service.
Regulatory responsibilities include:
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� Issuing waste collection permits, and setting the terms of these;
� Developing bylaws influencing, for example, the way waste materials are
presented;
� Responsibility for waste planning issues (insofar as these are not major
projects – see below);
� Determining applications for, and issuing, waste facility permits;
� Controlling illegal dumping;
� Monitoring compliance with regulations implementing producer responsibility
with respect to packaging;
� Monitoring waste disposal;
� Collecting and providing data; and
� Devising regional waste management plans (RWMPs).
In terms of operations, local authorities:
� Can engage directly in waste collection activity;
� Are involved in the operation of civic amenity sites;
� May be involved in street cleaning and clean-up of fly-tips; and
� Are likely to submit planning applications for landfills and other waste
management facilities in their own right with a view to operating them.
The task of regulating the market when combined with a business interest in the
same market can lead to a conflict of interest. For example, if local authorities are
operating a waste treatment operation, they may have a commercial to influence
other collectors such that they deliver the collected waste to their own facility.
Much of the literature in respect of environmental regulation highlights problems
associated with the issue of ‘regulatory capture’. In the case of local authorities in the
current context, it is clear that the possibility exists for such capture to be
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes