Dublin City Council vows to end plastic bag waste collection in next two years

Olivia Kelleher

Dublin City Council has vowed to end collection via plastic bin bags over the next 18 months to two years.

Although the vast majority of households use bins to collect their waste, some parts of the inner city continue to use plastic bags.

The situation arises because many of the small terraced houses and apartments in the area lack sufficient room for bins. As a result, they have been exempted from the requirement to use them.

This week, Irish Business Against Litter revealed that Dublin’s north inner city is the most littered area nationwide. This has been attributed to the continued use of plastic bags for the collection of rubbish.

Dublin City Council spokesperson, Derek Kelly, told Newstalk Breakfast on Tuesday that all cities struggle with littering.

“It’s not just the north inner city, there are other areas and other areas of the country that have similar issues,” he said.

“What we need to be conscious of is, the public have to do their part too.

“The city council is putting significant resources into trying to improve the visual amenity of the city and tackle littering.

“We’ve recruited over 100 additional staff in the last 12 months to improve our operations.

“We’re investing significant sums in a new, modern fleet which helps us wash and scrub over 27km a week of our city pavements - so, when people come into work in the morning, the city is as clean as it can be.”

Mr Kelly indicated that the city council does “have a plan” to end the of plastic bags. However, he stressed it was not an “easy task”.

“We are just ready to go on a pilot area off Grafton Street - there are 90 streets around Grafton Street,” he said.

“We have all the arrangements in place; we have two waste compactors that we placed at two strategic locations in that area.

“Customers of the private collectors will have a number of options for disposing of their waste.

“We do intend to move that throughout the city; we have an equally sized area in the north city, covering Henry Street, O’Connell Street, Abbey Street and the surrounds.

“Then we’ll be moving further out into the suburbs and urban villages.”

Mr Kelly insisted that the days of plastic bags on the streets of Dublin are coming to an end.

“We’re all in agreement that the days of plastic bag presentation are ending,” he said.

“And it will be gone within the next 18 to 24 months.”