Council to expand 'smart bins' to stop scavenging and improve collection

Dublin City Council are planning to expand the prevalence of smart bins around the city, which cannot be accessed by 'bin scavengers' in search of Re-turn bottles and cans

News Stephen Holland Local Democracy Reporter 08:00, 01 Aug 2026 View Image BigBelly bin stock image (Image: David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

The expansion of smart bins around Dublin city aims to increase efficiency and deter ‘bin scavengers’ in search of Re-turn bottles and cans .

Speaking at the Climate Action and Urban Resilience SPC Executive Manager Derek Kelly addressed the prevalence of people accessing bins and ripping open plastic bags to avail unused drink deposits. He admitted that the rims attached to some public bins have not been particularly successful, as “there’s coffee cups, banana skins, you could find half a pizza in it”.

He admitted that many of the 3,500 bins Dublin City Council provide are easy to access for scavenging. “You can put your arm through the opening and just pull the lock from the inside and open it,” he said.

While some people are “very clean” in their method of searching for bottles and cans, others “leave it in a state” and the council end up spend “€500 or €600” on an operation to clean up a bin that was overturned “in the hope for finding a single bottle for 15 cent”. While Mr Kelly said they don’t have a “silver bullet” for addressing this ongoing issue, he did say that smart Bigbelly Bins could point a way forward.

Mr Kelly said they are working on a proposal to replace their standard bins with the Bigbelly option. These smart street bins include an internal compactor that holds more waste and allows the council to plan their collections more efficiently.

Although this proposal is not directly about addressing scavenging, Mr Kelly explained the fact that they are locked adds an extra benefit. “They wouldn’t be openable without an appropriate fob system the staff will have,” he said.

He said the council’s 3,500 bins have to be emptied at least once per day and that areas of higher footfall, such as Grafton Street, can be serviced up to five or six times each day. Having more smart bins around the city will reduce the need for staff to service these areas so frequently and prioritise more high-level tasks.

“I get emails every day from people in the inner city about bags being ripped open and what am I doing about it,” he said. “My crew cannot keep responding to ripped open bags every day of the week, that’s why there’s the narrative that the city is dirty, they can’t do the day job because we are responding.”

Sinn Féin Councillor Edel Moran spoke about how pronounced the bin scavenging has become, stating she has not only witnessed people pulling bins apart but actually climbing into bins themselves. “It is horrific to see someone doing that,” she said.

While the rims around bins “didn’t work,” she said another solution needs to be found. Cllr Moran said that people willing to go to these extremes for unused deposit money “obviously need it” and suggested providing a dedicated bin for bottles so they can take them without causing a mess.

Green Party Cllr Carolyn Moore pointed out that plenty of other European cities have fully segregated on-street collection systems that work quite well. She said people in other countries can be very “particular and meticulous” about making sure they are used correctly.

She expressed frustration that the simple rim system added to Dublin bins was quickly misused. Cllr Moore called for an "attitude change” and a shift in perspective toward littering being properly perceived as “anti-social behaviour”. “People should feel so thoroughly ashamed of themselves if they litter in their own city,” she said.

This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme

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