Lord Mayor believes Dublin needs Japanese-style civic pride to end city litter

Lord Mayor Daryl Barron is tackling Dublin's litter crisis with new smart bins, higher fines, and a push for people to take a leaf out of Japan's book and have some civic pride for the city

News Stephen Holland Local Democracy Reporter 14:13, 20 Aug 2026 View Image Lord Mayor of Dublin Daryl Barron join's DCC's waste management team on a night-time clean-up shift

Those contributing to littering across Dublin should recognise their “duty of care” and have “a bit of civic pride in the city” according to the Lord Mayor.

Dirty streets, littering, and waste management have always been a point of concern in Dublin city, but it appears that, now more than ever, it is a hot button issue. With bin scavengers causing hundreds of thousands in clean-up operations due to bags being ripped open in search of bottles and cans for the Deposit Returns Scheme, Lord Mayor Daryl Barron said “it won't be tolerated” anymore.

Speaking with Dublin Live about his ‘Our Dublin’ agenda , Lord Mayor Barron said he has committed to ensuring a ‘A Safer and Cleaner Capital’ as a key tenet of his mayoral term. Having gained first-hand insight into the challenges faced by the council’s waste management team, he believes there is a need to “change out our whole system” when it comes to tackling litter in the city centre.

“I've been out with the team overnight. I've been in and around the city during the day analysing stuff myself to see where we are at. We can see first-hand what's going on,” he said.

Lord Mayor Barron revealed cleaning up messes left by scavengers is costing the council €351,000 per year - this is largely because of the impact of the Deposit Return Scheme. While havoc is being wreaked on Dublin streets by those in search of 15c and 25c bottles and cans, Re-turn have amassed over €60 million in unredeemed deposits that they state goes toward operating costs and reinvested to support and improve the scheme.

This is money Lord Mayor Barron believes should be partially ringfenced for the council’s waste management team. He said they are “spending a lot” on damaged bins, broken locks, and clean-up operations. He is not the only one who thinks this, as councillors across the country, including Fine Gael’s Gayle Ralph , have put forward proposals calling for Re-turn to return the favour to local authorities and foot the bill for all this carnage.

But Lord Mayor Barron believes this is a “two-way street” and it’s important not to forget that at the heart of the littering issue there are individual people contributing to the problem. “ Dublin City Council have a duty of care to look after the streets, but also people have a duty of care having a bit of civic pride in the city,” he said.

“Some people have no civic pride whatsoever for this city, and that's not good enough anymore. That's something that I'm going to pursue vigorously across the city over the coming year,” he said.

“For me, you have to have, for the love of Dublin, civic pride. And if you don't have civic pride for this city, it won't be tolerated. From dropping your cigarette to dropping a bag of horse manure will not be tolerated, and we need to make sure enforcement powers are there.”

One new measure being brought in from September is an increase in on-the-spot litter fines from €150 to €250, Lord Mayor Barron agreed that this could act as a deterrent but that his core goal is to get through to communities and that the council aims to prioritise campaigning, promoting, and educating people. “If you go to some other countries, Japan has no bins in public because their civic pride is the highest,” he said.

“They take it home, they distribute it into bins at home. The civic pride in that country is unique, and we need to take a leaf out of their book and look at how other countries do it. You know, if you're out and about in the city, put it into a bin. If you can't find a bin, you find the next bin up the road. You don't just leave it,” he said.

“You don't leave a poo bag on a bin, you don't just leave your cigarettes on the floor, you don't leave your cans or your bottles if you're out drinking in the city centre. That's the piece, the civic pride that people need to get, and that's something the messaging is very important now, education is going to be very important as well.”

Another practical step is the planned rollout of smart street bins according to the city. Lord Mayor Barron wishes to replace regular bins with the new Bigbelly alternatives, which can compact up to 70% of the waste and are locked to stop scavenging. “I think that's going to be a massive win for the city, then we'll eradicate all the problems we're having within the cleanliness issues,” he said.

Not only would these smart bins address the problem of bags being ripped up, but they would mean bins need to be emptied far less. Lord Mayor Barron revealed they are emptying some city centre bins “up to nine times a day”. This could be brought down to three or four times with the smart bins.

He stressed that this would lead to increased efficiency and ability to roster staff to tackle other waste management issues around the city. This includes expanding their 24-hour street cleaning zones and doing more work in the suburbs.

This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme

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