Council pledges to tackle city centre waste

Dublin City Council has decided to clean up their act.

At this month’s meeting of Dublin City Council, Lord Mayor James Geoghegan declared that Dublin will no longer be a dirty old town.

From January 1, 2025, commercial premises in the city centre will not be allowed to present their waste in plastic bin bags.

“For too long, commercial premises have been allowed to present their rubbish in plastic bags while homeowners have used wheelie bins,” the Lord Mayor told the meeting.

“When a shop or the restaurant closes the plastic bag of waste is left in front of the premises to be demolished by a seagull. A recent issue has also emerged with plastic bags being ripped open by people looking for containers that can be brought to machines to collect the deposit.” 

The scheme will begin in city centre locations such as Temple Bar, Dawson and Grafton Street on the Southside, before working its way up to the city centre locations on the Northside.

It is anticipated that the scheme will be rolled out city-wide should the trial period prove successful.

The meeting heard that the likes of Helsinki, Copenhagen and Tallinn are some of the European capitals that Dublin should strive to be like in terms of cleanliness.

“The City Council has met with the private bin operators in our city and they are going to provide more flexible solutions for restaurants and shops which have nowhere to put a wheelie bin but without dumping rubbish on the street in a plastic bag,” the Lord Mayor said.

He said that businesses will either have to put the rubbish in a wheelie bin or work with the bin operators themselves to “make sure that the waste goes directly from the business into the back of a bin lorry.”

“We’ve ensured that the bin operators have engaged with the businesses so that they’re aware of this change,” he said.

Dublin City Council boss Richard Shakespeare said “on taking up the position as Chief Executive, one of my first objectives was to deliver a cleaner city that we can all be proud of. This new strategy goes a long way to achieving that objective and I look forward to its implementation.”

“I firmly believe that when it comes to any major capital city such as ours, if you can get the basics right that is half the battle. In my role as Chief Executive that is exactly what I am working towards every day.”

In terms of practicalities, an extra 100 cleaning staff will be hired by Dublin City Council, bringing the total workforce up to 540.

Once the new staff are up to speed, the city centre cleaning service will be in place 24 hours a day with a rapid response team in place to clean up the streets.

At present, all businesses and households in the Central Commercial District area are permitted to present waste for collection 7 days a week. Waste can be presented after 5pm each day and must be removed from the kerbside by 10am the following day.

The council feels this window for collection should be reduced and they intend to change the hours of collection in a bid to keep the streets clean.

From September 16, a transition period will begin for owners/occupiers of retail, commercial and residential buildings in the designated Phase 1 area, who will not be allowed present waste in plastic bags on city streets for collection.

Full compliance is expected by January 1. 

Dublin City Council confirmed that following the rollout of the scheme on the Southside, the North East Inner City and the North-West Inner City would become “priority areas” for the council.

In a statement, Dublin City Council said that a litter awareness and prevention campaign is required to “bring about a change in culture and public behaviour.”

“Delivering this change is perhaps the biggest challenge we face,” the council said, with the campaign focusing on education along with warning people about enforcement rules.

Another proposal floated is creating communal storage areas in a residential setting, which would allow waste to be collected more efficiently.

Green Party councillor Janet Horner welcomed the move, saying “over the last few years we have been moving in the wrong direction instead of the right direction.”

“In the North Inner City we have seen a massive escalation in dumping over the last few years.”

“I think we need to have a serious look at some of our bylaws. In the North Inner City we have been looking at the limitations of some of our enforcement powers as a council,” noting that the €75 fine is a good starting point but more could be done.

Sinn Féin councillor Daithí Doolan said “the plan is quite city centre focused, and I understand why, but I feel the suburbs, like the area I represent, aren’t quite getting the same focus” on the issue of waste management.

“The cynic in me says it’s PR-orientated and it’s a response to the headlines,” he remarked.

“Illegal dumping is a blight and it undermines communities, and it also attracts anti-social behaviour.”

“We remain committed to the remunicipalstion of the domestic waste collection services to make sure we have a 21st century waste management system controlled, run by, and accountable to the public.”

Doolan’s Sinn Féin colleague Micheál MacDonncha questioned why the issue was raised under Lord Mayor’s business, saying it was “inappropriate.”

“It’s a very substantial and significant report, most of which I welcome, but there are many questions that councillors want to raise. We’ve had more insubstantial reports taken as separate items on the agenda yet this is a point under Lord Mayor’s business.”

“Maybe the ruling group wants to take ownership of the issue, but it’s not appropriate.”

The Lord Mayor replied, “it’s a priority of mine to have a clean city, I make no apologies for that.”

“It’s all our priority, that’s the point,” MacDonncha replied.

Independent councillor Cieran Perry said, “in my 15 years as a councillor there have been a lot of false dawns; I’m hoping there will be a significant change going forward.”

“Without a doubt, enforcement is an issue. In Ireland, we don’t do enforcement. We can do nice publicity campaigns but they simply do not work, so we need to concentrate on enforcement.

“Bylaws are weak and they need to be revised,” he said.

Independent councillor Vincent Jackson pointed out current loopholes in Irish laws surrounding littering.

“If I’m selling a can of soft drink that doesn’t have the Repak sign I could be fined €5,000, but if I drive up to the Dublin mountains and dump a suite of furniture or a washing machine, a €75 euro fine is not a disincentive.”