Large on-street waste compactors, similar in size to small caravans, have finally been installed in Dublin’s south inner city, with bin bags now banned from use on 90 streets in the area.
Just over a year ago, Dublin City Council announced plans to ban the use of refuse sacks by about 1,500 business and residents in the south inner city from the beginning of 2025. However, with less than 35 per cent of bin-bag users signing up to take wheelie bins, the move was delayed until alternative solutions could be implemented.
The council had hoped to have waste compactors, where customers of waste companies can deposit bags, installed at St Stephen’s Green and Temple Bar last March. However, due to a number of requirements for their installation, including connections to the electricity network, the project was delayed.
The compactors have now been installed at Fownes Street, at the side of the former Central Bank building in Temple Bar, and at Stephen’s Green east, beside public toilets at the top of Grafton Street.
The sealed containers are approximately four metres long and nearly 2.5 metres tall. The waste drum can only be opened by those with access cards and will not be available to the general public. Businesses and residents on the 90 streets have been issued with cards by their waste companies to allow them to use the compactors.
Waste compactors like this one have been installed in Dublin to move away from plastic refuse sacks. Photograph: Olivia Kelly
Customers who do not want to bring their bags to the compactor themselves are being offered a direct collection service by the waste companies.
“The city centre collection companies are providing a service with cargo bikes which will collect the bags directly from the customer and bring them to the compactors,” said Derek Kelly, executive manager of the council’s environment division. “What we’ve heard from the companies is that 90 per cent of their customers are choosing that door-to-door collection instead of bringing the bags to the compactors themselves.”
The council intends to introduce the compactor system to the north inner city early in the new year, after which bin bags will be banned throughout the inner city business districts.
The council is still seeking solutions for residential areas in the city which are not suitable for wheelie bins. These could include smaller sealed bins, which, similar to the compactors, operate using cards issued to customers.
Legislation requiring the use of bins instead of refuse sacks came into force in 2016, but thousands of Dublin residents and businesses were given a derogation from the rule because their properties were unsuitable for wheelie bins.
This mostly affected streets in the city centre, or inner suburbs with no gardens or direct back access. However, the council has long sought to rid the city of plastic waste sacks which are frequently torn apart before collection by seagulls, vermin and household pets, resulting in litter-strewn streets.