Terms of Service

1. Agreement to These Terms

By using recyclingcentreireland.org/ (the "Site"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you don't agree, please don't use the Site. These Terms form a legally binding agreement between you and the publisher of recyclingcentreireland.org/ ("we," "us," "our").

Read these Terms alongside our Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, and Disclaimer.

2. About This Site

recyclingcentreireland.org/ is an independent informational guide that publishes practical, step-by-step guides to civic amenity sites, bring banks, kerbside services, the Re-turn Deposit Return Scheme, and the wider Irish recycling framework across all 31 local authorities in the Republic of Ireland. We are not a local authority, government department, EPA, scheme operator, or waste-collection company.

3. Eligibility

The Site is intended for general use by adults conducting lawful research about Irish recycling, waste collection, and stewardship programmes. We do not knowingly direct content to children. Under section 31(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018 and Article 8 GDPR, the digital age of consent in Ireland is 16 in the context of an offer of information-society services directly to children.

4. Permitted Use

You may use the Site for personal, professional, journalistic, academic, and lawful research purposes — figuring out where to bring an old fridge, what's accepted at your local CA site, when bring banks are emptied, how the deposit return scheme works, planning a move to a new local-authority area, conducting due-diligence research on Irish waste-management policy, and similar uses. You may share links to our pages in personal correspondence, on social media, or in professional communications. Journalists, researchers, and consultants may quote short excerpts under the fair-dealing provisions of the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000, with attribution to recyclingcentreireland.org/ and a link back to the source page.

5. Prohibited Use

• Using the Site in violation of any applicable Irish or EU law
• Illegal dumping under the Waste Management Act 1996 or the Litter Pollution Act 1997
• Misrepresenting commercial waste as household waste at a CA site
• Misuse of HHW depot facilities
• Re-turn machine fraud — submitting non-DRS containers, fraudulent receipts, or otherwise gaming the deposit-return system, which may amount to fraud under the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001
• Harassment of council staff, CA-site attendants, kerbside-collection workers, Re-turn machine attendants, or scheme-operator staff
• Doxing — publishing personal data of officials, employees, or community members to enable harassment
• False claims of producer status or false EPR registration
• Filing false service complaints
• Sending unsolicited commercial electronic messages in violation of S.I. No. 336/2011 (the ePrivacy Regulations) or applicable consumer-protection law
• Scraping, harvesting, or systematically extracting content from the Site for resale, republication, or to power a competing service
• Using automated tools to send a high volume of requests that interferes with normal Site operation
• Attempting to gain unauthorised access to the Site, our systems, or any account or data — which may also be an offence under the Criminal Justice (Offences Relating to Information Systems) Act 2017
• Introducing malware, viruses, trojans, worms, or any other malicious code

6. Intellectual Property

All content on the Site — text, layout, design, graphics, logos, organisation, and code — is owned by us, licensed to us, or used with permission, and is protected by Irish copyright, trademark, and other intellectual-property law (including the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000, as amended, and the Trade Marks Act 1996).

You may view and print pages for personal or professional reference. You may not copy substantial parts of the Site, reproduce our editorial structure, or republish content commercially without our prior written permission, except as permitted under the fair-dealing provisions of the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000.

Local-authority names, scheme-operator names (“Re-turn,” “Repak,” “WEEE Ireland,” “ERP Ireland,” “ELVES,” “IFFPG”), and agency names (“EPA,” “DECC,” “LGMA,” “NWCPO”) belong to the relevant body. Our use is for the practical purpose of identifying the body each page covers and does not imply sponsorship, endorsement, or affiliation.

7. User-Submitted Content

If you submit content to us — a correction report, feedback, or comment — you confirm that you own it or have the right to share it, that it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, that it is not defamatory under the Defamation Act 2009, threatening, harassing, obscene, or otherwise unlawful under Irish law, and that it does not contain confidential or restricted information. You give us a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use the submission for the purpose of operating and improving the Site.

8. Third-Party Links and Services

The Site links extensively to Irish local-authority portals, DECC, the EPA, the NWCPO, the LGMA, scheme operators (Re-turn, Repak, WEEE Ireland, ERP Ireland, ELVES, IFFPG), public-information services (mywaste.ie, Recycling List Ireland, Citizens Information), and other authoritative sources. We have no control over those sites and cannot guarantee their availability, accuracy, security, or accessibility. A link from us is not an endorsement beyond the specific information we are pointing to.

9. Advertising Disclosure

The Site is funded by display advertising. Advertisements are served by recognised ad networks and labelled as advertising where required. We do not allow advertisers to dictate editorial content; verified council and scheme-operator portal links always come first on every page. Where any commercial relationship exists, it is disclosed in context per the ASAI Code of Standards for Advertising and Marketing Communications and the Consumer Protection Act 2007. Full position in our Editorial Policy and Disclaimer.

10. Changes to the Site or These Terms

We may add to, change, or remove parts of the Site at any time. We may also update these Terms from time to time. The “Last reviewed” date at the top reflects the current version. Substantive changes will be flagged on the homepage banner for at least 30 days before they take effect.

11. Disclaimer of Warranties

• The Site is provided on an “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE” basis
• WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE IRISH CONSUMER-PROTECTION LAW
• We make no warranty that the Site will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or free from viruses or other harmful components
• We make no warranties about the accuracy, completeness, currency, reliability, or suitability of any information on the Site for any particular purpose
• We make no representations about the accuracy of any council-published collection schedule, accepted-materials list, scheme-operator return-point list, or other data at any specific moment — those change continually and only the official portal at the moment of your check is authoritative

The full operational disclaimer is on the Disclaimer page.

12. Limitation of Liability

• WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES — INCLUDING MISSED COLLECTION DAYS, REJECTED BINS, BAG-CHARGE OVERAGES, EPR PRODUCER-COMPLIANCE OUTCOMES, OR ANY OTHER WASTE-MANAGEMENT OUTCOME — ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, THE SITE
• OUR TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY MATTER RELATING TO THE SITE IS LIMITED TO ONE HUNDRED EURO (€100), EXCEPT WHERE A HIGHER AMOUNT IS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW

13. Irish and EU Consumer Protection

If you are a consumer in Ireland or another EU Member State, the consumer-protection law of your country may give you rights that cannot be waived by these Terms. Nothing in these Terms restricts those statutory rights — including under Ireland’s Consumer Rights Act 2022, the Consumer Protection Act 2007, the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act 1980 as amended, the European Communities (Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts) Regulations 1995, and the EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive 2005/29/EC and Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU.

Irish consumers may also raise complaints with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) at ccpc.ie.

14. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from any claims, losses, costs, or expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your breach of these Terms — including any illegal dumping, harassment of council or scheme-operator staff, doxing, false service complaints, or any infringement of any third-party right through your use of the Site. This clause does not apply to consumers using the Site for personal, non-commercial purposes except where the loss arises directly from a deliberate or reckless breach.

15. Suspension and Termination

We may suspend or restrict your access to the Site without notice if you breach these Terms in a material way, your use causes a security risk or operational problem, we are required to do so by law or court order, or we discontinue all or part of the Site. You may stop using the Site at any time.

16. Dispute Resolution

If a dispute arises out of these Terms or your use of the Site, please contact us first at info@recyclingcentreireland.org with subject line “Dispute resolution” so we can try to resolve the matter informally. We commit to a good-faith response within 30 days.

If we cannot resolve the dispute informally, the parties will consider mediation under the Mediation Act 2017 before initiating court proceedings, where appropriate. Mediation is a structured, confidential process and may save substantial time and cost compared to litigation. If mediation is not agreed or does not resolve the dispute:

• Either party may bring an individual claim in the Small Claims Court (where the value qualifies — currently up to €2,000) at the District Court
• Either party may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in the appropriate Irish court
• EU consumers may also use the European Commission’s Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) platform at ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr for cross-border disputes

For consumers, nothing in this section restricts the right to bring proceedings in the consumer’s country of residence under Article 18 of the Brussels I (Recast) Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012.

17. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms and any dispute arising under them are governed by the laws of the Republic of Ireland, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. For any matter that is not subject to mediation under Section 16, the courts of Ireland (sitting in Dublin) have non-exclusive jurisdiction, except that:

• If you are a consumer in another EU Member State, nothing in these Terms deprives you of the protections of mandatory consumer law in your jurisdiction of residence under Article 6 of the Rome I Regulation (EC) No 593/2008
• If you are a consumer outside the EU, you may have rights to bring proceedings in your jurisdiction of residence under applicable consumer-protection law

18. General Provisions

Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, and Disclaimer, set out the entire agreement between you and us in relation to the Site.

Severability. If any provision is unenforceable, the rest continues in full force.

No waiver. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.

Assignment. You may not transfer your rights or obligations without our written consent. We may transfer ours to a successor in business as part of a corporate restructuring.

Force majeure. We are not liable for delays or failures caused by events outside our reasonable control.

Bilingual interpretation. These Terms are written in English. Where an Irish-language (Gaeilge) translation is provided for the convenience of Irish-speaking readers, in the event of any discrepancy the English version governs except where Irish law requires otherwise.

19. Contact

For any question about these Terms, email info@recyclingcentreireland.org with the subject line “Terms inquiry.”