Dirty Dublin streets a striking visual metaphor for power of industrial action

Dublin City Council waste management and street cleaning teams were among those on strike yesterday, leading to noticeable build-up of litter and rubbish across the city

Dublin streets became a striking visual metaphor yesterday for the power of industrial action as uncollected waste piled high across the city.

More than 300,000 public sector workers went on strike for the first time since 2009 in a dispute over pay. Among these was Dublin City Council’s waste management and street cleaning team, with staff not available to empty bins or clean streets, parks and public places.

It did not take long for these workers to be missed, as an epidemic of litter and rubbish usually reserved for major festivities like St Patrick’s Day soon took over. By lunchtime, bins were overflowing and business owners and residents had to step in to stop things from devolving into total chaos.

Green Party Councillor Feljin Jose shared images of dirty Dublin streets on social media, highlighting the impact of less than one day without DCC’s clean-up crews. “The sheer amount of waste that we generate and gets cleaned up by the cleaning crews every day and night is staggering. Up the workers!” the Cabra-Glasnevin rep said.

Cllr Jose told Dublin Live he couldn’t help but be struck by the impact of litter, rubbish and waste around Dublin city yesterday. He said almost every bin he saw was totally full or overflowing and he noticed businesses cleaning up outside their shops just to keep things tidy.

He said it highlighted the sheer amount of work that gets done but isn’t actually seen by the public. With paper cups and takeaway boxes lining the streets, under normal circumstances high footfall city centre bins are being emptied up to six or seven times per day.

The council were aware of the impact the strike would have, and issued a statement the day before confirming that only “critical and emergency services” would be operating. “The strike will particularly affect waste management and street cleansing,” a spokesperson said.

“We ask the public to help keep the city clean during the strike by taking litter home where possible and not leaving waste beside bins that are full. We appreciate the public’s patience and understanding.”

Cleaning services have resumed as normal, but Cllr Feljin said it only took a few hours to highlight just how essential and underappreciated this work is. While those walking city streets yesterday got a visual remember of how the public sector impacts their lives, he said this goes much further with parents being particularly affected by striking childcare workers yesterday.

“Libaries, swimming pools, bring centres were closed. My friend said ‘I was going to go to the gym, but then I remembered it is a DCC gym so I couldn’t’. Even Met Éireann in my area in Glasnevin Hill, they were outside and there was no weather forecast yesterday.” he said.

While strikes do impact people’s day-to-day lives, Cllr Feljin spoke about the “great amount of solidarity” among the public. “Even just the bins, you notice it. If it was two days in a row, then you’d really notice it,” he said.

“I joined a couple of picket lines yesterday and the support was just incredible. People driving by and beeping, cyclists ringing their bells, and people stopping to say hello.”

DCC’ 24-hour street cleaning services were expanded last year, with dozens of new staff recruited as part of an ongoing effort to make the capital cleaner. The Three Pillar Waste-Management Strategy brought total staff numbers up to over 500 and has allowed services to grow from 2.75 square kilometres to 4 square kilometres across the city.

This expansion was a major goal of the cleaning strategy and saw approximately 200 staff rostered across day and night shifts each day. This ensures continuous cleaning coverage seven days a week.

Increased staff numbers have also allowed for the creation of a city-wide rapid response team that can be deployed at short notice for any incident across the city. With the establishment of city-wide wash teams, the department washes between 20 and 30km of public footpaths and pedestrianised roads each week.

Areas in the city centre with high levels of foot traffic are also washed with specialised cleaning equipment up to four times per week. These include Henry St, Mary St, O’Connell St, and Grafton St.

Further developments are planned to meet Dublin’s significant cleaning demands, which include the waste management department receiving over 30,000 service requests each year. With 3,500 bins across the city all needing emptying at least once a day, those numbers rise to three or four times per day in the city centre.

Over the next three years, more than €12 million is set to be invested in new fleet and specialised waste management vehicles to enhance Dublin's cleaning operations. These include Compact Sweepers (Multihog), Handvacs, Specialised Street Washing Vehicles both vans and compact washers, Hook and Grab Lorries.

New cycle lane sweepers and a fleet of 18 large road sweepers, with an estimated cost of €4 million, are also being planned for procurement. The aim of this is to future proof the cycle lane cleaning service for the next ten years.

The recruitment of five new litter wardens since August 2025 has also allowed the council to increase its enforcement capacity into night-time shifts. This also means a renewed focus on ensuring that businesses are complying with anti-littering bye-laws.

An estimated 3,000 to 3,500 tonnes of material are illegally dumped each year, and to address these issues the council is expanding its CCTV surveillance in dumping hot spot areas and creating a “reverse register” to find culprits. This means the council can find out, through Eircodes, which households have a waste collection contract and which don't.

This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme

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