29.— F109[(1) A reference in this section to the implementation and operation of a source separation programme for waste shall be construed as a reference to the taking of steps in a systematic manner for the purposes of—

(a) separating specified waste from other waste and the holding of such waste so separated prior to its collection, recovery or disposal, and

(b) giving effect to the requirements of Article 22 of the Waste Directive in relation to bio-waste.]

(2) For the purpose of promoting, supporting or facilitating the recovery of waste, any Minister of the Government or a local authority may provide to any person such support or assistance, including financial assistance, as he or she or the local authority considers appropriate, including the provision of moneys in relation to research and development projects being carried out or proposed to be carried out by any person in respect of the recovery of waste, and for the purposes aforesaid may establish programmes and specify criteria and objectives governing the availability and provision of such assistance and support.

F110[(2A) (a) It shall be the duty of waste producers and holders to ensure that waste undergoes preparing for re-use, recycling or other recovery operations in accordance with sections 21A and 32(1).

(b) A person who contravenes paragraph (a) shall be guilty of an offence.

(c) The Agency and the local authorities, in carrying out their functions under this Act and related waste management legislation and policy, shall take the necessary measures to ensure that waste undergoes recovery operations in accordance with this section and sections 21A and 32(1).]

F111[(2B) Where necessary to comply with subsection (2A) and to facilitate or improve preparing for re-use, recycling and other recovery operations, waste shall be subject to separate collection and shall not be mixed with other waste or other material with different properties.]

F112[(2C) The Agency and the local authorities may allow derogations from subsection (2B) provided that at least one of the following conditions is met:

(a) collecting certain types of waste together does not affect their potential to undergo preparing for re-use, recycling or other recovery operations in accordance with section 21A and results in output from those operations which is of comparable quality to that achieved through separate collection;

(b) separate collection does not deliver the best environmental outcome when considering the overall environmental impacts of the management of the relevant waste streams;

(c) separate collection is not technically feasible taking into consideration good practices in waste collection;

(d) separate collection would entail disproportionate economic costs taking into account the costs of adverse environmental and health impacts of mixed waste collection and treatment, the potential for efficiency improvements in waste collection and treatment, revenues from sales of secondary raw materials as well as the application of the polluter-pays principle and extended producer responsibility.

The Agency and the local authorities shall regularly review derogations under this paragraph taking into account good practices in separate collection of waste and other developments in waste management.

(2D) The Agency and the local authorities shall take measures to ensure that waste that has been separately collected for preparing for re-use and recycling pursuant to Article 11(1) and Article 22 of the Waste Directive is not incinerated, with the exception of waste resulting from subsequent treatment operations of the separately collected waste for which incineration delivers the best environmental outcome in accordance with section 21A.

(2E) Where necessary to comply with subsection (2A) and to facilitate or improve recovery, waste producers and holders shall take the necessary measures, before or during recovery, to remove hazardous substances, mixtures and components from hazardous waste with a view to their treatment in accordance with sections 21A and 32(1).

(2F) By 31 December 2021, the Agency shall submit a report to the Commission on the implementation of this Section as regards municipal waste and bio-waste, including on the material and territorial coverage of separate collection and any derogations under (2C).]

(3) (a) The Minister may, after consultation with any Minister of the Government concerned, make regulations in relation to or for the purpose of the recovery of waste or a specified class or classes of waste, and any such class may be defined by reference to the manufacturing or industrial process or other activity giving rise to the waste concerned or to such other matters as the Minister thinks appropriate.

F113[(b) Regulations under this section may include provisions for the imposition of producer responsibility obligations on producers of products including provisions requiring the producer of a specified product to partly or wholly bear the waste management costs of that product and or the sharing of these costs with the distributors of such specified products.]

F114[(c) In order to maximise environmental benefits, including the environmentally sound management of products at their end of life, regulations under this section may also include provisions for the application of economic instruments including the making of arrangements relating to the display of environmental management charges, at a specified rate, by a producer or distributor as appropriate, to the purchasers of specified products.]

(4) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (3), regulations under this section may provide for all or any of the following matters—

(a) requiring the labelling or marking of a product or substance or its packaging, in a specified manner, so as to identify or specify—

(i) the composition of the product, substance or packaging,

(ii) the potential hazards of the product, substance or packaging in the event of its being recovered or disposed of,

(iii) the potential of the product, substance or packaging to be recovered,

(iv) such other information as may be specified,

(b) specifying requirements to be complied with as respects the nature, composition or design of packaging and the use to be made of packaging, and such requirements may include a prohibition on the use of packaging otherwise than in the specified circumstances or a requirement that packaging be designed in accordance with such standards as may be prescribed in accordance with regulations under paragraph (e) for the purpose of facilitating the recovery of the packaging,

(c) prohibiting, or limiting or controlling in a specified manner and to a specified extent, the importation, distribution, supply or sale in a specified container or other packaging of any product or substance,

(d) for the purpose of facilitating the removal of components from, or the dismantling of, products prior to their recovery or disposal, requiring products to be designed, manufactured or constructed in a specified manner or in accordance with such standards as may be prescribed in accordance with regulations under paragraph (e),

(e) enabling a specified person or persons to prescribe standards for the purposes of regulations under paragraph (b) or (d),

(f) requiring a producer, distributor or retailer to operate a deposit and refund scheme in relation to a product or substance of a type or brand made, distributed or sold by him or her, or any component of, or packaging related to, such product or substance,

(g) specifying the conditions under which a scheme referred to in paragraph (f) is to be operated (including the amount of the deposit or deposits to be required of the purchasers concerned and the targets that the operator of such a scheme shall achieve as respects the return of products, substances or packaging under the scheme in a particular period),

(h) requiring a producer, distributor or retailer to collect or arrange for the collection of, or to take back or arrange for the taking back of, without imposing any charge for so doing, any product or substance of a type or brand made, distributed or sold by such producer, distributor or retailer, or any component of, or packaging related to, such product or substance, after the purchaser thereof F115[(or, as appropriate, any person who acquires the product or substance subsequent to its first being purchased)] no longer has any use for it, and specifying the conditions under which such collection or taking back is to be conducted (including the targets that the producer, distributor or retailer shall achieve as respects the collection or taking back of such type or brand of product or substance, or such related components or packaging, in a particular period),

(i) requiring the owner or manager of a supermarket, service station or other sales outlet to provide, free of charge, specified facilities at such an outlet for the removal by customers of packaging from products or substances purchased by them at that outlet, and receptacles for the deposit of such packaging,

(j) requiring the owner or manager of a supermarket, service station or other sales outlet to impose a charge on a customer in respect of the provision by him or her to the customer of any bag, container or other such packaging in relation to products or substances purchased by the customer at that sales outlet, such charge being of an amount equal to the full cost of such packaging or to such other amount as may be specified in the regulations,

(k) requiring the purchaser of a product or substance to return such product or substance, or any component of, or packaging related to, such product or substance, after he or she no longer has any use for it to a retailer of such a product or substance or to deliver it to an authorised waste collector or other specified person or facility,

(l) requiring a producer of a product or substance to use recovered or recoverable material or components in the production of the product or substance, or prohibiting, or limiting or controlling in a specified manner and to a specified extent, the use of specified virgin material in such production,

(m) requiring a person to implement and operate, in a specified manner, a source separation programme for waste of a specified class or classes,

(n) requiring that waste, the subject of a source separation programme, be offered and made available, free of charge or otherwise, in a specified manner, to a specified person for collection by such a person,

(o) requiring, in a specified manner, the owner or manager of a supermarket, service station or other sales outlet to provide, operate and maintain, or arrange for the provision, operation and maintenance of, waste collection receptacles at such an outlet for use by members of the public and transfer or arrange for the transfer of waste that may be so placed in such receptacles to a specified waste recovery facility,

(p) requiring that any used product, substance, component, packaging or other waste to which regulations under any other provision of this subsection apply be recovered in a specified manner,

(q) requiring specified other steps to be taken in relation to waste referred to in paragraph (p) where, by reason of circumstances defined in the regulations, it is not practicable to recover the waste,

(r) notwithstanding any other provision of this section, requiring a local authority to provide specified financial assistance in a specified manner to persons engaged in the recovery of household waste,

(s) exempting from all or any of the requirements of regulations under this section a person who is certified by an association or body corporate formed or established for the purpose of carrying on waste recovery activities and approved by the Minister in accordance with regulations under paragraph (t) to be either—

(i) a member or shareholder of that association or body corporate, as the case may be, or

(ii) participating, in a satisfactory manner, in a scheme for the recovery of waste, or complying with any requirements specified by that association or body corporate, as the case may be, in relation to the recovery of waste,

(t) (i) the granting by the Minister of approvals for the purpose of regulations under paragraph (s) and the conditions which he or she may attach to such approvals, including conditions relating to—

(I) the financial and administrative arrangements to be made by the association or body corporate concerned,

(II) the waste recovery activities to be carried on by the association or body corporate concerned and the manner in which they are to be carried on,

(III) targets to be achieved by the association or body corporate concerned with respect to the recovery of waste by it,

(ii) enabling the Minister to vary as he or she thinks fit any condition attached to an approval aforesaid or to revoke such an approval in specified circumstances,

(iii) the means by which an association or body corporate shall determine, for the purpose of regulations under paragraph (s), whether a person is participating, in a satisfactory manner, in a scheme referred to in that paragraph or, as the case may be, is complying with requirements referred to in that paragraph,

(iv) the grant and revocation by an association or body corporate of a certificate for the purpose of regulations under paragraph (s) and the notifications to be given by it in respect of such a grant or revocation to the person concerned and other specified persons,

(u) requiring a person to keep specified documents, records or other particulars and to furnish specified information to specified persons in relation to the steps taken by him or her to comply with a specified requirement of regulations under this section, and enabling a specified person to verify the accuracy of any matter stated or recorded pursuant to a requirement of regulations under this paragraph,

(v) requiring a producer or distributor to prepare and publish, at a specified frequency and in a specified manner—

(i) a plan specifying steps proposed to be taken by him or her to promote, support or facilitate the recovery of any product or substance made, distributed or sold by him or her, or any component of, or packaging related to, such a product or substance, and

(ii) a report on the steps taken by him or her in pursuance of such a plan and the results of those steps,

(w) requiring the preparation and publication, at a specified frequency and in a specified manner, by a person who is the subject of any specified requirement of regulations under this section (other than a requirement imposed by regulations under paragraph (v)) of—

(i) a plan specifying the steps to be taken by him or her to comply with such a requirement, and

(ii) a report on the steps taken by him or her to comply with such a requirement and the results of those steps,

(x) conferring on public authorities (including the Minister) and other specified persons specified additional functions for the purpose of securing or facilitating the operation of provisions of regulations under this section,

(y) requiring local authorities to facilitate, promote or carry out in a specified manner the composting of municipal waste of an organic nature or any other process for the biological transformation of such waste,

(z) any matters consequential on, or incidental to, the foregoing.

(5) (a) Without prejudice to subsection (3) or section 7 (2), regulations under this section may make provision in relation to persons, products, substances, activities or other matters referred to in this section generally or in relation to a specified class or classes of such persons, products, substances, activities or other matters.

(b) A target an obligation to achieve which is imposed on a person by regulations under this section may be defined in such regulations by reference to a specified proportion (whether by weight, volume or otherwise) of the products, substances or other things to which the obligation relates.

(6) A person who contravenes a provision of regulations under this section shall be guilty of an offence.

(7) In a prosecution for a contravention of regulations under this section (being a contravention consisting of a failure to achieve a target specified in the regulations), it shall be a good defence to prove that the accused took all reasonable steps to achieve the said target.