The bother with bins: Too much waste and too little control over how rubbish is collected

WHEREVER YOU ARE in the county, you probably have a view on fly-tipping, illegal dumping, the lack of recycling facilities, how your waste is collected and stored.

Waste collection is a basic yet fundamental service we all rely on, and it is not just a private arrangement with our collection company, how it is done affects all our communities.

So it was no surprise that in recent weeks, Dublin City Council hit a nerve with residents in their decision to start banning bin bags across certain communities. The council effectively made a policy decision, but our dysfunctional system of waste collection meant that it is being left to the private bin companies to decide how to implement the changes.

The result?

For most affected households, they will now face a doubling or in many cases a trebling or more, of their waste costs, there will be a reduced incentive to reduce waste because many will have to sign up to annual standing charge instead of the pay per bag and there is now the prospect of a proliferation of unsightly bins sitting on streets seven days a week.

Most of the houses affected do not have front garden or back gardens and are situated on narrow streets.

Spiralling costs

As you can imagine, there has been consternation. We understand Dublin City Council tried to negotiate with the bin collectors on the roll-out of shared collection systems across residential communities, but to no avail.

That pretty much sums up our dysfunctional system. Local authorities rely on private companies for waste collection and yet exert little or no power over them.

Our lopsided system means that multiple private bin companies get to drive the same roads in some areas and provide no service elsewhere.

They have the luxury of driving past illegally dumped waste and litter on our streets while local authorities have to spend millions every year cleaning up the mess.

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Providers get to charge what they want, with some companies making very handsome profits; as a result, we have a serious underinvestment in public recycling and composting facilities.

Back in 2018, the Competition and Consumer Protection Authority said in very clear terms that the current waste management system is failing and that Ireland needs an economic regulator for waste companies.

Eight years on, households remain at the mercy of unregulated price increases, and there is zero transparency over companies providing a crucial public utility.

No other major European city does it like this and nor should we.

The theory of competition was supposed to deliver choice and affordable pricing, but the evidence is very much to the contrary.

One bin collection provider increased its prices by 43% since early 2024. Another increased their charges by 26% in the past two years. One of the main provider’s last increase was a 48% jump back in 2024, so we expect to see an announcement from them soon.

No competition

Looking ahead, EU waste disposal rules in force since May, which ban the export of waste beyond EU borders, will force a further hike for households.

On top of all of that, we have a growing concentration of a small number of very big companies in the market here.

None of this is efficient organising of what is a critically important service for all of us.

In parts of Dublin 15, there is a near monopoly situation with only one provider, and in the inner city different companies cover the same routes with all the disruption, confusion and diesel emissions that go with that.

By the government’s own admission, “municipal waste recycling rates have plateaued in the last decade”, and it is near impossible to see us meeting our EU Waste Framework Directive recycling targets under the current waste collection system when they go to 55% in 2025, 60% in 2030 and 65% in 2035.

Take back ownership

In transforming how we deal with waste, I want to see strong State-led control of all waste collection in the country. This will have to start with competition for the waste market as opposed to competition in the waste market.

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The distinction is really important. By tendering for a single operator, local authorities will be able to start controlling precisely how waste is collected.

There have been previous attempts to do this, but they were struck down because of EU competition law. In 2009, the four Dublin local authorities attempted to contract a single operator but lost when one waste company challenged it in the High Court and in another courtroom, a councillor took on a case challenging the privatisation of the service.

The game-changer is the 2014 EU Concession directive, which allows for tendering by the State or an agency of the State for services of public interest.

I have brought forward a bill, and this will be debated in the Dáil tomorrow, which will provide for a single operator and, crucially, for landlord responsibility. Landlords simply must be made accountable for the bin collection for the properties they rent out.

These changes would mean greater power and control by our local authorities, but they also need to show greater ambition.

Every year Dublin City Council spends millions collecting almost 3,000 tonnes of illegally dumped bags and cleaning up after our friends the seagulls, cats and foxes have strewn waste from bin bags all over the streets.

It’s not rocket science to suggest alternatives are possible to the bin bag.

In The Hague and Rotterdam there are on-street underground waste collection chutes. In Barcelona, Copenhagen and Singapore there are public bins linked to an underground collection system which overcomes the problem of overflowing bins and reduces the need for kerb side collection.

To be fair, Dublin City Council has shown great innovation in the past in trialling compactors and bag bin trials.

But the problems appeared to outweigh the benefits. Rather than give up, they need to try harder.

Marie Sherlock is Labour Party TD for Dublin Central.