Bin bags piling up on street corners around Dublin are ruining the city for locals and visitors alike.

On Lunchtime Live this morning, Dubliner Davey Donnelly said bin bags are being left untouched for hours – with wildlife tearing them apart and leaving rubbish all over the road.

He said it now seems like Dublin City Council’s strategy for dealing with litter in Dublin is to wait for the rain to wash it away.

“It is usually the evening where it’s worst,” he said. “The bin bags are left there for hours and then they’re picked apart by birds that leave food waste on the pavement.

“It’s unsightly and gives a very poor impression of the city centre.”

I see this on every single street in Dublin City Centre. Bags of rubbish, left for hours, picked apart by birds, and the resulting waste not picked up by the operators. How, after years of privatisation, can the refuse companies and DCC (in collaboration) not get this right? pic.twitter.com/RDWlriEosb

— Davey Donnelly (@DaveyDonn) June 22, 2022

Mr Donnelly said the collection system is not working – with private collection companies failing to provide robust bags and DCC failing to clean the streets properly.

“It was particularly bad last night,” he said “The streets around the Temple Bar area are covered with food waste from damaged bin bags.

“The companies take the bins but don’t clean the mess and then we’re waiting, either for DCC to pick it up, or the businesses themselves to pick it up - or we’re hoping beyond hope that the Irish weather elements will carry it away.”

He said the situation is very topical during the summer, “when it becomes quite clear that the city strategy for cleaning our pavements is heavy rainfall.”

Europe

Also on the show, Dubliner Daragh Cassidy said Ireland could learn a lot from our European neighbours.

“You see it on Grafton Street,” he said. “That’s our main shopping street.”

“Often rubbish would be put out at 3pm or 4pm and is still out there at 2am in the morning. That rubbish has been sitting out there for well over eight hours.

“You don’t see that in other countries. The vast majority of cities manage their waste far better.

“It is not just the bags or the timing. It is how we manage litter collection in general. We should be putting litter under the ground to be picked up like other countries do or it should be put in proper containers.

“Here, businesses throw it out on to the road, they hope it gets collected within a few hours and sure if the seagulls attack it, so be it.”

Rubbish

Mr Cassidy said Florence has “Almost beautiful artistic-looking commercial bins” throughout the city for businesses to use.

“You almost wouldn’t know they are bins,” he said. “They look quite stylish. You lift them up, put in your rubbish, there is no smell and they’re not attacked by seagulls.

“Then, in places like Amsterdam, you put it under the ground. It is a way better way of dealing with waste.”

In a statement DCC said there is a seven-night a week collection service across much of the city centre.

It said businesses can leave their bags out every night, while domestic homes have a designated collection one night a week.

You can listen back here: