New Stoneybatter wheelie bins not suitable for 91-year-old 'dragging them up stairs'
A plan to ban big bags in Stoneybatter has sparked outrage, with former Lord Mayor Nial Ring warning that his 91-year-old mother, and hundreds of elderly residents like her, simply cannot drag heavy bins up staircases and through narrow terraced houses.
The implementation of Phase 3 of Dublin City Council’s Three-Pillar Waste Management Strategy has been a major point of concern for residents across Dublin 7. Plans to remove the waste bag collection service from the area have been criticised by councillors, as the alternative of large wheelie bins or a stacked caddie system may not be suitable for elderly, disabled, or waste conscious residents.
Independent Cllr Ring put forward an emergency motion to the Central Area Committee yesterday calling for the rollout to be suspended until residents have been properly consulted. He described the communication by DCC on the rollout as “appalling” and that proper consideration has not been given to how the plan could negatively impact those living in the area.
“My mother is 91 years old and lives in a terraced house. There’s absolutely no way she can take a bin from the back to the front of the house,” he said. Cllr Ring revealed representatives have received hundreds of emails opposing the plan which must be suspended until there is agreement from those in the area. He said it is not acceptable that those affected have not been consulted and that the “take it or leave it” approach from waste collection providers has left them feeling like they have no choice in the matter.
Executive Manager Derek Kelly defended the rollout as a major component of the council’s plan to clean up the city and said the previous phases of their strategy has already removed approximately 20 tonnes of waste from the streets per month. He said the four waste providers in the area - Panda, Greyhound Recycle, KeyGreen, and Thorntons Recycling - have been working with the council to offer a variety of solutions to customers.
However, there was unanimous agreement within the council chamber that there had been major communication issues and the rollout should be suspended until agreement can be found. Bringing up issues of accessibility, an increased financial burden, environmental concerns, and the debate around remunicipalisation of waste collection, it’s clear the council and councillor are at loggerheads on this topic.
The proposed plan to eliminate plastic bags from the streets has caused concern due to a feeling that many homes around Stoneybatter and Dublin 7 lack the space for bin storage. With many homes lacking front gardens, there’s a worry that people would have no choice to illegally store them on the street.
This is where many councillors voiced concern, with Cllr Ring describing the homes in the area as “artisan dwellings” where people “can’t be dragging wheelie bins through their houses”. Cllr Malachy Steenson stressed that many living on upper levels would need to drag full bins down their stairs into small gardens.
While Mr Kelly said they wish to eliminate plastic bag collect service because of bags being ripped open “either by vermin or people looking to find deposit return items,” Cllr Steenson stressed he has not seen evidence of this. He argued the current system works well for people to leave a bag out when they need a collection and not deal with the burden of storing a bin in a cramped location.
Mr Kelly said that waste operators are providing an alternative for those without sufficient space through a stacked caddy system. He said they are around the size of one domestic waste bag and store around 45 litres worth of waste.
A caddie is around “the size of a shopping basket” according to Mr Kelly, with three stacked on top of another and approximately 1.2 metres high and around 400mm². Being around “the weight of a laptop,” he said them as a “light unit” that wouldn’t cause significant extra burden compared to a plastic bag.
Cllr Steenson described the system as "nonsense" and said that although the caddies might be relatively light when they are empty, it will cause difficulties for the elderly or disabled when full. “Many of these people find it difficult to walk, never mind dragging bins down the stairs,” he said.
Calling for the council to take waste collection services back into public ownership, he described the privatisation of the system since 2012 as a “fiasco” and asked that operators' contracts be abandoned when they come up for renewal. However, Mr Kelly stated that any arguments around remunicipalisation are outside of his control and they must work within the current regulations.
Mr Kelly stressed that the long-standing derogation that allows residents to leave plastic bags out on the streets for waste collection doesn’t align with the aspirations set out in the council’s corporate plan. He said a change of by-laws is required to meet EU requirements for waste segregation, which the current circumstances do not facilitate.
Representatives accepted that changes may be required, but took issue with the manner in which the council had communicated this. Rather than consult with the public and make clear what their options were, Cllr Ring said residents were instead confronted with a “grubby letter” from operators outlining major changes.
Sinn Féin Cllr Séamas McGrattan said that although he supports the long-term aims of the waste strategy, a “one size fits all concept” doesn’t work for the area. With poor communication between the four stakeholders - waste companies, waste management, representatives, and residents - he called for “those dots to be joined up”. He asked that plans be paused to allow time to “sit down and talk to residents to work this out together”.
Green Party Cllr Janet Horner agreed the process needs to be “paused and reviewed” to allow people to get the full picture of what is actually happening. She said she’s receiving emails where half the people believe they have no choice but to accept a large wheelie bin and although the other half know about the caddies they still have concerns.
“This information should have come first and foremost from the council and not private waste providers. People feel their hands have been twisted behind their backs and the private companies have been consulted rather than the residents of this city,” she said.
While Mr Kelly said he will discuss alternative options with the waste providers he stressed there are “huge numbers of residents more than happy to take the options provided”. This assertion was questioned by Cllr Ring, who wondered how he could be sure if there was no consultation within the area. He said the only thing he was sure of is that the people contacted him via email are unhappy.
Cllr Ring called for a survey to be conducted to gather empirical evidence on what the people actually want. While Mr Kelly said they will be carrying out a social media campaign to further inform people of the rollout, Cllr Ring said this will be of very little benefit to people like his mother and other elderly residents who don’t use social media and must be contacted directly.
For many residents the bag collection system offered a pay-as-you-go model, where people could be conscious about their own waste management and only pay for a pick up when their bag was full. There’s no such option under the new requirements, meaning those producing very little waste pay the same as everyone else.
Cllr Horner said that “bags work quite well” for people who produce very little waste and that the incoming changes could add hundreds of euros extra to people’s annual bill. “That is a genuine problem in a cost of living crisis ,” she said.
These comments were echoed by Independent Cllr Ciaran Perry who said that “penalising people who are consciously trying to minimise waste” goes against environmental goals. He said he’s spoken to people who have kept their costs to as little as €40 per year and that once they lose the plastic bag options the cheapest offer they’ll have will be €240.
Social Democrats Cllr Cat O’Driscoll has first-hand experience of this problem and said in her area she has no choice but to subscribe to a bin collection service and has to pay even though she “hasn’t put a bin out for two weeks”. She said those living alone who have low waste end up paying the same costs as those in a family of six. “People who are low waste should be rewarded for being good recyclers,” she said.
Frustration around the implementation of the plan comes from a feeling that people weren’t given a chance to discuss the alternative options. Green Party Cllr Feljin Jose said that when the Three-Pillar Waste Management Strategy was first presented to councillors it mentioned waste compactors or digital Eurobins, but those options now seem to be “off the table”.
Referencing a beta pilot programme from 2020 around a shared bin system, Cllr Jose said viable alternatives “have not been considered” and that he has “huge concerns” about the impact wheelie bins could have on the area. Mr Kelly said the council had tried to do another shared bin trial but there was “a lot of objection”. He said although people support the idea in theory, they hear “not at my door” when they try to implement it.
Mr Kelly stressed that they have worked closely with waste providers to offer a service that would meet everyone’s needs and it was the council who pushed for the provision of the caddy system for smaller households. He said they continue to advocate for smaller options and are happy to investigate the provision of waste compactors in the area, although due their size they are more suited to commercial areas.
Cllr Ring’s motion was unanimously passed, but management were reluctant to agree to suspend the rollout of Phase 3. Instead, Mr Kelly said he will speak to the waste providers about the concerns raised and look into viable options. It was agreed the issue will remain on the agenda, and an update will be provided at the June Central Area Meeting.
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