Lord Mayor takes to Dublin streets to see clean-up strategy for himself

While Lord Mayor Daryl Barron hit the streets for a first-hand look at the city's litter situation, Dublin City Council's ambitious waste management strategy continues to face significant pushback from residents and politicians alike

News Stephen Holland Local Democracy Reporter 17:45, 07 Aug 2026 Updated 17:57, 07 Aug 2026 View 2 Images Lord Mayor of Dublin Daryl Barron join's DCC's waste management team on a night-time clean-up shift

Lord Mayor of Dublin Daryl Barron took to the streets this week to help clean up the city - but pushback on the new waste management strategy remains.

Upon his election as Lord Mayor , Fianna Fáil Councillor and Donaghmede native Barron outlined waste management as a key pillar of his ‘Our Dublin ’ mayoral theme. “Let us clear litter from the streets, build the homes our people deserve, expand the safety in our neighbourhood and return the hope to our young people,” he said in his opening speech last June.

Now, Lord Mayor Barron is gaining first-hand insight into the litter challenges facing Dublin as he joined waste management and cleansing staff on a night-time shift in the city centre. He said this is an activity he aims to do more throughout his term.

“It’s important for me as Lord Mayor to get out of the Mansion House, walk the streets, and see for myself how our city lives and breathes. I was delighted to join staff from waste management on the night-time shift during the week. I want to commend the work they do. I can see how dedicated and proud of their city that they are. They are doing great work and I want to make sure they have everything they need to do their job,” he said.

Ensuring ‘A Safer and Cleaner Capital’ is one three main priorities for Lord Mayor Barron, alongside tackling dereliction and vacancy, and empowering youth and honouring communities. The cleanliness of Dublin has been a hot button topic in recent times, as the implementation of the Deposit Returns Scheme for recycling bottles and cans worth between 15c and 25c led to the prevalence of so-called ‘ bin scavengers ' tearing apart plastic bags and pulling open public bins.

The resulting messes left behind are left up to local authorities to clean up at a cost reported to be between €500,000 and €1m per year. The perceived increase in littering across the city has even sparked calls from local councillors like Fine Gael’s Gayle Ralph for funds accrued from unredeemed deposits (€60.1 million last year) to be ring-fenced for local authorities .

Dublin City Council has been active in cleaning up the streets as their three-pillar waste strategy has recruited 100 extra waste management staff, invested in new vehicles, and expanded 24-hour cleaning zones in recent months. The installation of waste compactors at two-city centre locations has also contributed to a reduction of 20 tonnes of waste from city streets per month.

View 2 Images Derek Kelly, Executive Manager, Climate & Urban Resilience, Dublin City Council, Former Lord Mayor of Dublin, Councillor Ray McAdam, and Barry Woods, Head of Waste Management, Dublin City Council at the new waste compactors on Marlborough Place (Image: Fennell Photography)

But, not everyone has welcomed the changes to waste management brought in by this new strategy as the plan to eliminate plastic bags from city streets saw pushback and protests from those in Stoneybatter, Broadstone, and Phibsborough. The resulting controversy saw this plan deferred until October , but the council has remained firm that they do intend to ban plastic bags, not just in those areas but across the city in due course.

Lord Mayor Barron’s waste management ambitions might very well receive further pushback if residents aren’t satisfied with how this ban is implemented, as the current proposals for wheelie bins or a stacked-cabby system has been widely criticised not just by residents but by politicians. One representative who has been vocal about the need for an alternative vision is Labour TD Marie Sherlock.

“People who only put a bag out every three to four weeks because they recycle well are now going to be forced into flat-rate contracts where they have to pay way more,” she previously told Dublin Live .

Rather than succumbing to a “one size fits all” system where people must accept wheelie bins or plastic caddies, Ms Sherlock urged the council to think outside the box for alternatives. "This is about having more ambition for our city and for our streets and looking at the alternatives that other European cities have put out there," she said.

From underground bins to waste compactors in residential areas, Ms Sherlock stressed “Dublin City Council could do an awful lot more in terms of actually stepping up”. While the privatisation of bin collection services in Dublin has a complex history, she feels local authorities have “lost a bit of confidence in their powers and abilities” and delegating everything to private companies is not the answer.

“You’ve got an under investment in composting and recycling. We've only got two civic amenity centres in the whole of the constituency, North Strand and Grangegorman, I think we need to be looking at how we develop more of those, maybe on a smaller scale,” she said.

“I believe waste management is not just a private utility. It’s something that really impacts us all.”

This outcry against waste management in Dublin city saw Executive Manager for Environment, Climate & Urban Resilience Derek Kelly state at the recent Climate SPC that he is “sick of people telling me the city is filthy”. “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,” he said.

Mr Kelly spoke about the challenges of messes left by scavengers, birds ripping open bags people have left on the street, and the need to ban plastic bags as part of directives from the European Union. He stressed that not only must the council move forward with its waste management strategy, but that fines for littering and dog fouling will increase from €150 to €250 from September 1.

While Lord Mayor Barron may have gained first-hand insight into the city’s litter troubles by joining a night shift, public opinion on the council’s waste management remains sharply divided. It is clear that the streets aren’t the only thing that’s messy, as residents and politicians have continually voiced frustration over the divisive rollout of the new strategy.

This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme

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