{"id":581119,"date":"2026-08-03T02:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T02:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/581119\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T02:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T02:32:15","slug":"dublin-city-council-official-sick-of-people-saying-capital-filthy-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/581119\/","title":{"rendered":"Dublin City Council official \u2018sick of people\u2019 saying capital \u2018filthy\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of Dublin city\u2019s most senior environment officials has said he is \u201csick of people telling me the city is filthy\u201d and has urged Dubliners to take some personal responsibility <\/a>for the waste they produce.<\/p>\n

Derek Kelly, executive manager of the council\u2019s climate division, has also advised people in smaller homes to consider using new 45-litre waste caddies being offered to them if their properties aren\u2019t big enough for wheelie bins. <\/p>\n

The council plans to press ahead with a ban on the presentation of plastic bags on streets in Dublin 7 in October<\/a>, but Kelly said householders will face fines if they leave wheelie bins on the footpath outside designated collection times. From September, fines will increase to \u20ac250<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Dublin \u2018bin ban\u2019 roll-out delayed in Phibsborough, Broadstone and StoneybatterOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The council recently made significant investment in waste management services, spending more than \u20ac4 million this year on a new road sweeper fleet and doubling the area covered by a 24-hour cleaning regime, he said.<\/p>\n

In response to the recent hosepipe ban, the council has scaled back street washing, but Kelly said it was continuing to remove litter and empty the city\u2019s 3,500 bins at least once a day and up to eight times daily in heavily trafficked areas.<\/p>\n

However, he said \u201ccivic pride\u201d needed to be encouraged. \u201cI\u2019m sick of people telling me the city is filthy. Yes, it can be filthy at times, but we\u2019re doing so much, and cleanliness is for a moment in time. Two seconds later, somebody can destroy a street, and that can happen to Grafton Street; it can happen anywhere,\u201d Kelly told city councillors at a meeting this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public have a huge part to play, and we really need to get that higher on people\u2019s agenda\u201d.<\/p>\n

Green Party Cllr Claire Byrne asked why communal bins <\/a>in use in the city centre could not be deployed in the inner suburbs where a ban on the use of bin bags is imminent.<\/p>\n

The council has already banned the on-street presentation of plastic bags in most of the south and north inner city and had planned to extend the ban to Dublin 7 in July, but has extended permission for their use until October.<\/p>\n

Legislation requiring the use of bins instead of refuse sacks <\/a>came into force in 2016, but thousands of Dublin residents and businesses were given a temporary derogation from the rule because their properties were unsuitable for wheelie bins.<\/p>\n

While only two waste collection firms operated in the inner city, Kelly said, about 50 operated in the suburbs, which made the use of communal bins problematic. Alternatives to large wheelie bins were being offered by waste collectors, including smaller wheelie bins and 45-litre caddies which were \u201cabout the size of a shopping basket\u201d. For many, he said, these could provide a better option than storing waste bags in their homes until collection day.<\/p>\n

People who opted for wheelie bins would not be permitted to leave them on the street outside collection times, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a presentation window,\u201d he said. \u201cIf people leave them out, they will be fined. The public street is not the place to store them; it\u2019s the place to present them for collection, and then you must take them in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Council staff could not continue to clean up the mess from ripped bags, he said. \u201cWe can\u2019t do the day job, because we\u2019re responding to domestic waste being ripped open, because the presenter thinks their job is done when they put it on the curb and now it\u2019s the waste collector\u2019s waste. It actually isn\u2019t. It\u2019s your waste until it goes into the back of that truck.\u201d<\/p>\n

The council has tried its best to come up with a workable solution, he said. \u201cThere\u2019s no perfect solution, and if we\u2019re looking for the perfect, we\u2019ll get nothing\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of Dublin city\u2019s most senior environment officials has said he is \u201csick of people telling me the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[71903,13288,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-581119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-dublin-7","tag-dublin-city-council","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}