City Council spent nearly €1m on illegal dumping in 2021

Dublin City Council has revealed that it spent €900,000 in 2021 collecting and disposing of illegally dumped rubbish.

The figure was announced at this month’s county council meeting where a report on illegal dumping in the city was presented to councillors.

The report said that “illegal dumping in all forms has been an ongoing issue for many years and will unfortunately continue to be so going forward into the future.”

Eithne Gibbons, head of Waste Management Services at the council who drafted the report says that this number is actually a reduction from recent years with DCC spending €1,158,636.23 in 2019 and €984,939.51 in 2020 compared to €904,620.22 in 2021.

The number of reported incidents of illegal dumping also went down last year.

The council received 12,096 complaints through its reporting system which was a reduction of nine percent on the 13,289 cases reported in 2020.

“Household refuse in bags, bulky waste items and general fly tipping are all issues we have to respond to,” the report said.

“Although by far the vast majority of illegal dumping consists of the illegal disposal of household waste in discarded bags across all areas of the city.

“It is particularly problematic in certain areas most notably the bag collection areas in and around the city.”

Gibbons says in the report that Waste Management Services aims to respond to all incidences of illegal dumping within 24 hours of first receiving the complaint.

When a report is logged, “it is immediately and automatically channeled directly to the local area office who first determine if there may be a possibility of identifying the perpetrators of the illegal dumping.

“This is generally only possible in the case of dumped bags, which might conceivably contain materials, which would allow us to identify the source of the bag such as household bills etc.”

However, the report says that identifying the culprit is often difficult due to “increased public awareness, GDPR legislation and a general reluctance on the part of private households to dispose of personal information because of issues such as identity theft.

It is becoming an “increasingly fruitless exercise,” it says.

In its efforts to deter illegal dumping, the council says it “provides access to 84 bottle banks, 9 Bring Centres, 46 textile banks and 2x Civic Amenity Sites located across the City to enable and encourage citizens to dispose of their waste in a responsible and legal manner.”

The report also cites the need to have “increased community participation” and is “considered essential in tackling and quickly resolving illegal dumping issues.

“In 2021, the Waste Management Department in co-operation with local area offices and local residents provided in excess of 5000 community clean-ups.

“In order to encourage greater participation in such clean-ups we provide necessary supplies such as bags and/or litter pickers and the subsequent removal of all collected materials after the community clean –up is complete.”

Addressing how illegal dumping can be reduced over the long term, Gibbons says in the report that “today’s linear economic model, based around ‘Take – Make – Waste’, is environmentally and economically unsustainable.

“The 2020 Waste Action Plan for a circular economy reconfirmed the link between the circular economy and climate action and mandates a whole-of-government approach to ensure a successful transition to a circular economy.”