Large on-street waste compactors, similar to the size of a small caravan, will come into operation at St Stephen’s Green and Temple Bar in the first week of September, Dublin City Council has confirmed.
Within weeks of the compactors going live, businesses and residents on 90 streets in the south inner city will be permanently banned from leaving rubbish bags at the kerbside for collection.
The council described the move as a “massive change to waste management in the city”, adding that it was “probably the most significant” in many years.
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 rules because their properties were unsuitable for wheelie bins.
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Streets in the city centre, or inner suburbs with no gardens or no direct back access, were mostly affected.
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.
The problem was exacerbated, the council said, by the introduction of the deposit return scheme which resulted in people deliberately ripping open bags seeking bottles and cans to retrieve cash deposits at return machines.
The council at the beginning of last September announced plans to ban the use of refuse bags on 90 streets in the south inner city from January 1st.
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The four-month stay would allow waste collection companies three months to switch customers to bins where possible, or come up with alternative collection services, the council said.
However, by the start of this year only 35 per cent of customers had moved from using bags to wheelie bins, though some companies had established direct collection services, where customers can arrange a time to meet bin lorries and hand over their sacks so they don’t sit on the street.
The council agreed to the installation of large municipal waste compactors for use by businesses and residents where alternatives were not practical. The compactors were due to be in place last March, but due to a number of requirements for their installation, including connections to the electricity network, the project was delayed.
However these issues have now be resolved, the council said.
“All required works are scheduled to be completed by the end of this month and it is therefore expected that they will be fully operational in the first week of September.”
Two compactors, approximately 5m long and nearly 2.5m tall, are being installed, one at the top of Grafton Street at St Stephen’s Green, and the other on Fownes Street, down the side of the former central bank building in Temple Bar.
Customers are being issued with fobs/ cards by their waste companies to allow them to use the compactors, the council said.
The containers are sealed, it said, and the waste drum can only be opened by those with access cards and codes, and will not be available to the general public. Staff from the companies “will also be on site for a period of time once the system goes live to show customers how the compactor units operate” the council said.
Once the system is operating satisfactorily, the council said it will move to implement a similar bag ban on the northside of the city.
