City centre businesses have said they believe organised gangs and vulnerable individuals are among those who are searching in bins for bottles and cans to recycle, which Dublin City Council said cost €500,000 last year to clean up after.
The operators of the Deposit Return Scheme said they knew that the practise would be an issue, but that they hope it will reduce over time.
Two years since Ireland put a refundable deposit fee on drinks containers to drive up recycling rates, people searching in bins is now a common sight in the capital.
Over a number of hours in Dublin city centre last week, RTÉ News observed numerous people rummaging in bins, among them, Nerijus Bogucianskas, who is homeless and struggling with alcoholism.
He works on a CE scheme but said he searches for cans and bottles when his weekly payment runs out.
He said he feels doing this is “better than begging” but that he also feels a lot of “shame” about it.
“It’s too hot now, but usually I’ll put a hood and the sunglasses, I’m really ashamed.
“I’m in Ireland 25 years and I’m meeting people who see me in the bins. It’s hard but I’ve no choice now, because I’m short a fiver,” he said.
Rubbish is left beside a bin in Dublin city centre
Mr Bogucianskas said he had been walking the streets searching in bins since around 5am and that by lunchtime he had collected around €4 worth of recyclables.
He said he was competing for bottles and cans with many others who search the bins along the quays looking for containers to convert into cash
“It’s not easy. There’re more pickers than bins. I’m usually looking from the top and if I see, I’ll pick the can. I won’t dive into bins,” he said.
Litter created a major issue
While the people we saw searching bins did not discard other rubbish or create a mess, some scavenging is causing problems.
Dublin City Council said that in a 24-hour cleaning cycle, three of those hours are being devoted to clean up after what they describe as “bin interference”.
Last year alone, the estimated cost was around €500,000.
Waste Management Inspector with Dublin City Council Robert Edwards said the litter created from people rooting in bins is a major issue that is taking time away from traditional street cleaning.
Items pulled out of a bin after it was searched for bottles and cans
Standing on North Earl Street in Dublin’s north inner city, he said the problem began with smaller on street bins but has now expanded to commercial wheelie bins.
“Before the bins on this street would be serviced twice a day. Now we’re having to make sure we come around on the hour every hour, because the bags are getting pulled out of the bins.
“It started with the bins you see here, but now, down laneways where businesses leave big wheelie bins, they’re getting tipped over,” he said.
“The people that are taking the bottles out actually know when the bins are out. They nearly know the schedule better than myself.
“Weekends, Saturday and Sunday mornings, south side, and northside but especially south side like Drury Street, places like that, we’re having major issues. It is taking up an awful lot of resources over the weekends.”
‘Organised element’ to collecting
CEO of the Temple Bar Company Martin Harte said he believes there is an organised element to some collecting from the bins.
“We have seen quite a bit of people, coming in with keys, in groups and targeting strips of bins along the street. They have a system, they’re in and they’re out quite rapidly. So there obviously is an organised element,” he said.
Martin Harte said busy events in the capital leads to more people targeting bins for cans and bottles
“When there are events, particularly events aimed at kids, the likes of pantomimes and matinees with large volumes of plastic bottles put into bins, it tends to get really bad around those particular events and those times.”
‘No need to put bottles and cans of bins’
CEO of Re-turn Ciaran Foley said they are trying to better understand the issue by carrying out research into the practise and that Dublin City Council has not asked them to contribute to the clean-up costs.
Ciaran Foley said he hopes people will no longer put bottles or cans in bins
“I guess we knew that this would be an issue. We were the 20th scheme to go live in Europe. We see this all across the major cities in Europe, but the reality is, from a Deposit Return Scheme point of view, we don’t want anybody putting bottles and cans into bins in the first place,” he said.
Adding: “We’ve over 2,800 reverse vending machines. I know of five reverse vending machines in the five-minute walk of where we’re standing now.
“The vast majority of them will have a donate option on the button for charity, so if you haven’t time to get your voucher or get your cash, you can just pop in your bottle, press the button, and on you go,” he said.
“We’re hoping over time that we can educate people that there’s no need to put bottles and cans of bins in the first place. That’s what we’ve seen across Europe, that it’s an issue more at the start of the scheme. We’re only two years in, so we hope to see that alleviate as time goes on.”
There are about 1,000 bins in Dublin city centre
It had been reported that Bin Surrounds, which allow people to put cans and bottles on a shelf, were being completely removed.
But Mr Foley said that is only in a small number of areas where they are attracting more rubbish than recyclables and that the use of the surrounds could be expanded.
“The bin surrounds is a pilot, we have 130 of them in Dublin currently. There’s about 1,000 bins in Dublin city centre so, if we can spread the education and people start using them in a more widespread manner, then obviously we can place them on more bins,” he said.
“I think if we do more research and try and really understand where the council are seeing these pockets of problems, then we can hopefully understand a bit more about the behaviour and do what we can work with the local authorities and see what can be done to address the issues.”
Read more: Re-turn to engage with Dublin City Council after criticism of Deposit Return Scheme operation